Construction Update and More Photos

Eyes on Main Street - September 5, 2013

Construction Update and More Photos

Wet clay.

The wet spot in front of Kraus Oil was dug up yesterday as seen in this photo, however, it was determined to be just wet clay. 

I had concerns as well as others with the slant of the colored concrete in front of the Spring Grove Communications building. The answer I was given is "the slant was not supposed to be so drastic, but the contractors wanted to eliminate the step up before going to the basement and to assist with water flowage away from the building, which caused more of a slant than originally designed."

Landsom and Mendez corner.

The detour also has taken its toll on some of the roadways, signs, light poles, lawns, and even trees. This photo is the tree on Abe and Lara Mendez's lawn. You will also notice the street sign and missing light pole from the lawn of Steve and Peggy Landsom's lawn. 

The overall project cost has stayed under expected. The engineers negotiated with the light contractor and were able to save about $10,000; there also was a change to some of the pipe sizes for building water supply saving about $20,000; removing the railings saved around $46,000; and it cost around $15,000 to install the extra fabric in the roadway. So everything is below the original budget.

Here an update from Councilmember Nelson from the contractor's meeting held yesterday: "1) Someone from WHKS is regularly around and attends the construction meeting. This week it is Tim Hruska. After the meeting, Tim called Bruce and me over to say that the various deletions and certain changes have reduced costs enough that the change orders (all relatively small) are balanced out. At the present time, there does not appear to have any inroads of any significance into the project's Contingency Fund. He also said that enough of the basic project has been completed with no big surprises so far. Should there be any, there is the $80000 (or more) left in the bond levy money. We should know by early November the status of the remaining funds. Anything left has to go into the repayment fund. But , I'm trying not to count the chickens yet. Tim is optimistic that with the current status  surprises are less likely as each day goes by.   2) The rural part of the project is stated to start September 23 so no pilot cars between here and 52 until then.   3) The bad weather at the beginning gave Mathy a month's delay in their schedule. Work may go on until November.   4) The lights poles are just now being fabricated. The installation is sometime in October. With the roadway in its present condition, the installation couldn't be done yet anyway.   5) The main problem in the east end is that the clay soil is wet and is being hung out to dry, so to speak."

Here are some more photos from yesterday.

Wet spot found to be just wet clay.

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