'Catch-up' begins this week on city roadwork projects / LJWorld.com

Archive for Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Contract crews prepare to embark on more than one million dollars of road repairs - the latest among three rounds of work underway since Spring.

By Mark Fagan

August 19, 2008

Photo by Mike Yoder

Steven Lashley, project engineer with the Lawrence Department of Public Works, marks curbs that will be taken out and replaced as part of a city street overlay project on Trail Road between Monterey Way and Folks Road.

Katherine Hibbs is looking forward to getting some new curbs and gutters on Trail Court, new pavement on Trail Road and new crack fillings, driveway wedges and "speed cushions" elsewhere in town.

Anything to make roads safer for the parent of four and home-schooler of three as summer gives way to fall.

"There are a lot of roads that need work and need attention," Hibbs said. "It's been a hazard for people. It's obviously something our community should be concerned about."

Beginning next week, contractors hired by the city will fan out to select areas of town to complete the last of three phases of the city's annual overlay program, the most wide-reaching of municipal road-repair efforts.

Projects will stretch from Trail Road in northwestern Lawrence to a few streets near Prairie Park School in southeastern Lawrence. Also on the map for work: a taxiway for airplanes at Lawrence Municipal Airport; roads within Lawrence Memorial Park Cemetery, a former privately owned resting place in eastern Lawrence; and a stretch of University Drive just west of Iowa Street in the central city.

"We're picking up some streets that were missed at some point in time," said Steve Lashley, project engineer for the city's Public Works Department. "We're playing catch-up in what we're trying to do."

The work started Monday, typically with curb repairs at certain sites. Lashley and a coworker were out on Trail Road early Monday afternoon, marking spots that would need particular attention.

When proper concrete is in place, crews will remove the top layer of pavement from identified streets, then patch the road base before coming back with a fresh coat of pavement.

All of the contracted work - for at least 9,316 tons of asphalt pavement, plus 3.2 miles of road cracks to fill - is expected to be completed by mid-October, Lashley said.

Roads set to get new pavement and, in some cases, curbs and gutters, during the coming weeks in areas of Lawrence:

Southeast: Cimarron Drive; Rawhide Lane, south of 27th Street; Alabama Street, from West 27th Street to West 27th Terrace; East 24th Street, from just west of Ponderosa Drive to Harper Street; Ponderosa Drive, from East 25th Terrace to just south of East 26th Street; East 28th Street, from just west of Oregon Street to Haskell Avenue; West 28th Street, from Alabama to 194 feet west of Belle Haven Drive; Belle Meade Place; and Seabrook Place.
East: Lawrence Memorial Park Cemetery, internal roads; Silicon Avenue; Edgelea Road.
North: Taxiway apron, Lawrence Municipal Airport.
West: West Eighth/West Ninth street, from Lawrence Avenue to Kasold Drive (the stretch also will get three "speed cushions," designed to slow traffic); Chalk Hill Court; Arizona Street, south of Sixth; Schwarz Road, from Oxford Road to the cul-de-sac; Orchard Lane, from Oxford to 275 feet east of Crestline Drive; University Drive, from Crestline to Weston Square; and Rockledge Road, from just south of Country Club Terrace to McDonald Drive;
Northwest: Trail Road, from Folks Road to Monterey Way; and Sharon Court. Getting curbs and gutters only will be Eldridge Lane, north of Trail Road; Trail Court; and a 128-foot section of Sharon Drive, north of Trail.

Discussion

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19 August 2008
at 9:17 a.m.

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logrithmic (Anonymous) says…

Hey the $1.5 million dollar intersection at 19th and Lousianna is finally done. Anyone want to see what $1.5 million buys in the way of construction, come on by! All this for a turn lane into Lawrence High and a new lane at the intersection for turning left (west) on to 19th.
19 August 2008
at 4 p.m.

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KU_Dude (Anonymous) says…

1.5 million actually bought more than what logrithmic said above ^^off the top of my head….A concrete intersectionnew traffic signalsnew asphalt for at least a block in all four directionsa bus lanea center lanenew sidewalksreseeding grassmaybe even some reconstructed utilitiesIf you could do the work cheaper logrithmic, please make a bid on other city projects.
19 August 2008
at 5:31 p.m.

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ddayot (Anonymous) says…

Nothing like waiting untill KU is back in session, with a few thousand more cars in town, to start tearing up roads all over town.
19 August 2008
at 7:26 p.m.

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logrithmic (Anonymous) says…

The point is not whether it can be done cheaper. The point was whether it needed to be done at all.I'll let those who live in the neighborhood and who pass through this “reconstructed” “new” intersection be the judge on whether it was worth $1.5 million.
19 August 2008
at 9:36 p.m.

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akuna (Anonymous) says…

Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to find out if a project is worth it is to do it. In an effort to make progress successes and failures will be made. We'll have to wait and see if this project is a success or a failure.