OPEN!!

Stripes!

Last day...

Today is the last day of the road being closed. The exact time of opening isn't yet known, but it will be before 5pm. 

The winter rye is coming up nicely.

Fresh Topsoil

They brought in bunches of new dirt yesterday, it will be graded and seeded with winter rye. There are a couple of sidewalk sections to be put in, but they did the last driveways on the south end of the project yesterday. They are still trying to decide if they put the trees in yet this fall or wait until spring, there are practical and contractual implications to consider.
Obviously there is tremendous pressure to open the road, but seems logical to keep it closed until they are finished. Safety is no accident, and it seems clearly safer for all involved to not have traffic and guys on skid loaders in the same space. Hope for no rain or snow.

The question of incentives/disincentives for completion by a certain date is not as clear as it seems like it should be. There are a number of provisions and conditional factors, things like "working days" as defined by the Iowa DOT. There was a delay to the project in the early days when they had to redesign the north pier on the fly. Then there were the rain delays in June (remember, 20 out of 30 days of rain). The negotiation is underway on how to count the days. It's not such a simple thing as a date on a calendar when it comes to construction contracts. Links to the rules and regs will be posted as they are discovered.

Awaiting Stripes

They finished paving the last section of road yesterday, and plan to stripe the roadway today. The Michels guys mostly bugged out yesterday, there is one big cat left doing the finish work to clean up the drilling area on the south side this morning. Maxwell is also out, having repaired the water main. PCI is back on-site, moving dirt around getting ready to put in the last bit of sidewalk connecting the north side of the bridge to the trail. They plan to lay the sidewalk on Monday. Another week or so and the road should be open.
Our sympathies to city inspector Tom Tharp and his family on the recent passing of his father-in-law.

Gas line - IN!!

Woo hoo, they pulled in the line and are now filling it in preparation for testing. (the tanker is filling the line with nitrogen, pictured) Provided that goes well, they can start cleaning up the mess and get the paving guys in to do their thing and before we know it, all this construction and detour mess will be a memory.

Monday update, such that it is...

The Michels crew that had worked 24/7 since last monday (11/1) put in a short shift on Sunday and then had a reprieve until this morning. They should be pulling in the pipe today, after a lot of long hours creating the 880' long, 20" hole for it, 25' under the creek. It's been slow going, with equipment breakdowns and other general troubles inherent with this type of work, but they're making it happen.

There is a bit of paving on the south end of the construction zone that needs to be completed before the road can be opened - right now there is a 2-3" drop in one section that it's not wise to take very fast in low-slung vehicles.

There was a lot of foot and vehicle traffic in to the construction zone yesterday - Michels finally parked a big rig across the south end of the bridge to keep traffic from sneaking through.

The other unfinished piece of business is the status of the water main. A leak was identified a couple of weeks ago now, but at this moment the status is unknown. Also unknown is if it is going to impact the opening of the roadway. If anyone has additional updates, they are most welcome! Comment here or email epostbridge@gmail.com 

Bridge lights are on

The lights are on and the crew is on-site, still working away. There is a giant hole at the south end of the pipe, and the dirt is piled along the SB lane.

Dawn at the bridge

A lone machine is poised for action on the north east side of the creek.

Election night update

The backup

The reality of any construction project is that things break, go wrong and otherwise make it take longer than originally planned. Today the main boring machine broke down, so they got the secondary in place. It's slow going, and pretty touchy work. They are 25' under the creek, and ~50' under the road level at some points. Here's the wikipedia explanation of directional boring:

Wikipedia :

The beginning of the process starts with receiving hole and entrance pits. These pits will allow the drilling fluid to be collected and reclaimed to keep the cost down and prevent excessive waste. The first stage drills a pilot hole on the designed path and the second stage enlarges the hole by passing a larger cutting tool known as the back reamer. The reamer's diameter depends on the size of the pipe. The driller increases the diameter according to the material being cut and creates for optimal production. The third stage places the product or casing pipe in the enlarged hole by way of the drill steel and is pulled behind the reamer to allow centering of the pipe in the newly reamed path.
Horizontal directional drilling is done with the help of a viscous fluid known as drilling fluid. It is a mixture of water and, usually, bentonite or polymer continuously pumped to the cutting head or drill bit to facilitate the removal of cuttings, stabilize the bore hole, cool the cutting head, and lubricate the passage of the product pipe. The drilling fluid is sent into a machine called a reclaimer which removes the drill cuttings and allows the crew members to keep the proper viscosity of the fluid.

This is pipe replacement, not exactly the same, but close

 On the east side of the creek, the Maxwell crew is still trying to identify the source of the leak in the water main. They thought it was under the creek bed, but were mistaken. It's an inexact science. Seems to be a good thing to have identified in early November than, say, in February. 

While it's disappointing that the project is stretching out beyond the original time line, it makes sense to keep the road closed until these two elements of the project are complete, no matter how long it takes. It would be a major slow-down to the process to have to work around traffic. Patience - a week or two more of a detour we've lived with for 7 months is no big deal. Let's, as they say on the other DOT projects - Give 'em a BRAKE. The guys out there working a 7-7 shift have enough to worry about, and they are people too, doing a job, making a living. Let's appreciate the hard work of building major infrastructure! Bridges and natural gas lines are so under-appreciated...

Election day sunrise over the bridge

The Michels crew pulled their first all-nighter monday night. This crew gets the nod for the longest days, bet they wish they'd been here in July, with warm, long days. It is frosty out there today.

Weekend Warriers

The Michels crew is hard at it this morning, continuing drilling. They are on the home stretch of the first phase, have worked to the north side of the creek.

Sure is a beautiful morning to be outside.

Friday Update

Michels Crew 10/27/10

The drilling process being done for the gas line installation is pretty cool... the contractor is Michels, and the horizontal drilling process is neat-o. It's hard to take pictures of it, seeing as how the action is happening underground. They are boring from the south end of the construction zone to the north, and on Thursday afternoon, they were just about to the south edge of the creek. The pipe will be 25' under the creek, about 60' below the road surface. They do an initial bore, then ream, then they will insert the line. The crew is putting in long days - they worked until 10pm on Wednesday night, and until 7 last night. This morning they were on-site and rolling at 6:30. It's unclear when they will be done - it's going more slowly than it sometimes does, because of the rock they are up against. Recall when PCI was putting in the pilings for the bridge deck they also had problems - the bedrock was sometimes elusive. They'll get there, though - this is by far not the most challenging project they've worked on. This crew has bored the Mississippi twice. Indian Creek must be just child's play.

60' below...

60' below this spot is how deep they are drilling the gas line. It's radio controlled from the south end of the construction zone. They are making progress, slow but sure.

In other news, a leak has been discovered in the water main under the creekbed that runs on the east side of the bridge. Maxwell is back on site to fix it.

Fall cover

They put down rye seed, an annual, and straw to prevent erosion this fall, the remaining planting of trees and regular grass mix will happen in the spring. The gas line work is ongoing.

Friday Update

The city announced the opening of the bridge to be pushed back some... http://easterniowagovernment.com/2010/10/21/opening-of-new-east-post-road-se-bridge-slated-for-first-week-of-november/ for Rick Smith's article about it.

Hope if you're reading this you've already voted in the poll for your guess on what day the road will open. 


Strange things happen in construction zones... the photo below shows the way they rigged the phone line on Wednesday. Not sure what happened, but it was hanging low, and they had to rig it to get it out of the way until Qwest could fix it (which they did yesterday). The line was held up by the bucket, then tension on the low side with the upside-down cone.

10/21 morning view

New Sac & Fox Trailhead

West side of the bridge

East side of the bridge

7:20 am view

 

It's getting harder to get good morning shots with the sun coming up so late... but there is action on the North side of the bridge today. The surveyors are coming out to select a new spot for the gas line on the north side, not sure exactly what the problem was, but better to measure twice and bore once, right? The pipe on the south side sits ready to go. 

This sign got posted 10/19. 

The asphalt guys are coming in today to do Phase 1 of the last of the paving, connecting the old road to the new bridge approach. There will be a dip of a few inches, then once the construction is done, they will come back and smooth it out.

When will it open? Comments, please!

It closed on March 15th, they predicted 7 months.

North side action

Not sure what they are working on, but all the action was on the north side early this morning.

pipe at the ready

It was quiet on the south side of the bridge this morning, the pipe has been assembled, will be bored under the west side of the road and under Indian Creek perhaps today?

New pipes

This is the new natural gas transmission line they will bore under the creek from south to north. The pipes stretch from Trailridge Rd to the power line right-of-way. There was also some pouring underway, some bridge finish work. Overall it is looking good!

Dusty morning

They were running the street sweeper this morning over the fresh pavement, raising dust like a soybean field harvest, quite lovely in the sunrise. 

Great progress has been made - the bridge and road are now connected on both sides, the Kennelworth Court intersection is paved. Maxwell has been out finishing the storm sewer enclosures.

It seems doubtful the Maxwell folks tagged their work like this... not sure what to think of that. It appears to say "shitake", with a paw print through it. 

10/5/10 painted rocks

They painted yesterday, looks great!

10/1/10 progress

Presenting the NB lane!

9/30/10 6pm - opposite view

This is the view looking south. They are prepped for running the paver up the NB lane in the morning.

9/30/10 6 pm

The Kennelworth Ct intersection.

9/30/10 7:15am

they are prepping the NB lane for paving this morning.

9/29/10 7:15 am

Very quiet along East Post this morning.

the wider view

South side SB lane 5pm

They were just finishing spraying the SB lane with white stuff (anyone know what that is?). 3 days and the south side local traffic (Kennelworth Ct, 3 E Post households)will be routed back on to hard surface for the first time in what seems like forever.

New Road!

The Paver is hard at work laying new road - this morning they did the north side of the bridge, the SB lane; now they're working on the south side of the bridge. No traffic will be allowed for at least 3 days to allow for proper curing, and it will be walkable by this evening. Progress!

9/28/10 7:45am

9/27/10 Progress

The paver is now on site, work will begin on the southbound lane Tuesday morning. It will need 3 days to cure, then they will do the other side.

9/27/10 Green light

The lights on the bridge are LED, and will be a whiter light and energy efficient.

9/23/10

The lamp posts are up! Otherwise, not much has changed this week.

Smooth ride

Hopefully this is a sign the road is going to be awesome!

Prepping

This machine preps the roadway for paving, and is amazing to watch work.

9/16/10

So close...

9/9/10 view of the south side

Smoothing out...

9/9/10 evening view

paint job

9/7/10 muckiness

The muck pools in a large hole (sewer line install) on the south side of the construction zone this morning.

On the north side it looks like they're moving toward paving - there is a fresh layer of crushed stone. Also, painting of the bridge's faux stone has begun.

It might not look like it from this picture, but they seem to be nearing the home stretch!

Another pour

Friday they will pour the final bridge segments- all 4 corners. They also plan on starting the staining tomorrow, neat-o!