Progress on the Hillcrest Drive Reconstruction Project has been steady despite excessive rain and wet conditions since the project got underway in April, Director of Engineering Micah Siemers said today.
“The contractor, Brent Bell Construction, has done an excellent job of making progress under some difficult weather conditions,” Siemers said. “The project is currently tracking on schedule despite these conditions.”
The $2.2 million project, approved by voters in the 2013 Half-cent Capital Improvement Projects Election, involves reconstructing Hillcrest Drive from the Caney River to just north of 20th Street. The new roadway will consist of two 12-foot-wide drive lanes with six-foot-wide asphalt shoulders. Turn lanes will be provided at Shawnee Avenue and 20th Street, and a pedestrian path in the area will be provided by maintaining some of the existing roadway.
Siemers said while the project has remained on schedule despite the rain, upcoming work is dependent on drier conditions.
“The mainline subgrade between 20th Street and the Caney River has been constructed to a point that we are ready for construction of the final eight inches of lime stabilized subgrade,” he said. “Once the rain stops and things dry out again the contractor will begin mixing in hydrated lime, which reduces the plasticity of the subgrade material. This will help reduce shrink/swell of the soil under the roadway and manage moisture in the soil.
“We won’t know when that work will start as it is weather dependent, but hopefully it will be in the next week or so.”
Siemers said once contract crews complete the lime stabilization they can start bringing in the aggregate base and then, theoretically, they should be ready to lay asphalt.
“They plan to work on getting the intersection at 20th Street completed at the same time so that the lime stabilization, aggregate base and asphalt work can take place at that location during the same phase of the project,” he said.
Once the first phase of the work is completed, traffic will be shifted to accommodate upcoming phases, Siemers said.
“All of this work is being done as part of the first major phase so that when it is complete we can shift traffic to the new roadway to begin work on the Shawnee connection,” he said. “As they get closer to completing the work at 20th Street and on the mainline, we will also begin work at the connection by the river.
“This will be a bit more complex since we will have to close half of the roadway at a time while maintaining two-way traffic with temporary signals. We are exploring the option of closing Hillcrest again completely for another two weeks to allow them to get that work done quicker, before school starts up again in August. But that is still a bit of a moving target.”
Siemers said despite unfavorable weather conditions, 20th Street could reopen to traffic later this summer.
“While all of this is weather dependent, and we are not currently getting favorable weather, we hope to have 20th Street opened up with traffic on the new roadway sometime in mid-August,” he said. “At that point, traffic would be detoured from Shawnee to Hillcrest via 16th Street, and the Shawnee intersection would be closed. Once that work is complete they will be removing the west half of the existing roadway and finalizing drainage ditches and grades outside the roadway alignment.”
Motorists are encouraged to find alternative routes when possible to avoid the construction area. Speed reductions are in place in the affected areas.