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.