Wrangell weather will determine pace of roadwork

As of late last week, construction on the road improvement project on Front Street was set to start Monday, Jan. 30. However, those overseeing the project say weather will play a significant role in the start date and the progress of the work.

“As always at this time of year, this is going to be weather-dependent,” said Mike Ashton, superintendent of McGraw Construction, at a project meeting Jan. 26.

Originally, Ashton said he had hoped work would begin Jan. 16.

“But with all this cold weather and everything freezing down solid, obviously that did not happen,” he said. “Our plan is, as soon as the weather breaks, is to start.”

Project Engineer Eric Voorhees echoed Ashton’s statement when talking to the Sentinel Friday. He said if the cold temperature and heavy precipitation stick around Wrangell for much longer, work could easily be pushed back.

However, both Ashton and Voorhees said once work begins, it should move more smoothly than it has in the past.

The Wrangell road improvement project, which is part of the downtown revitalization project, is set to improve 2,500 feet of Front Street. New water lines and storm drains are being installed and existing sewer lines are being upgraded. New roadway lighting will also be installed along Front Street.

The project has been split into five phases. Phase One broke ground in August, and because of some challenges, Voorhees said, work took longer than expected.

For example, significant amounts of bedrock needed to be excavated from in front of NAPA last fall, which delayed work.

At last week’s meeting, Ashton said they have the “largest chipper in the state of Alaska” to help break through any rock in the ground.

“So it should go faster than it has in the past,” he said.

Wrangell Mayor Jeremy Maxand asked about the risk such a large chipper would pose to nearby buildings. Ashton said his crews would be taking “aggressive” protective measures to ensure buildings would not be compromised.

Currently, the underground utility work of Phase One is complete, but the sidewalks and paving is not, Voorhees said. Phases Two through Five are set to be completed no later than by the end of September this year, he said.

And, unlike last year’s construction, Phase Two will have traffic control plans that focus on a small section of the street at a time, instead of having one traffic control plan for the entire phase, Voorhees said at the meeting.

That, he said, will be most convenient for both the contractor and for the flow of traffic, as well as allow construction to move smoothly down Front Street.

“So we’re working on 200 feet of road at once instead of 700 feet of road at once,” Voorhees said. “And I think that is our best solution to try to have shorter impacts of any section of road.”

Wrangell Economic Development Planner Carol Rushmore said street closures greatly impact local businesses, and asked that be taken into consideration during construction. Rushmore added, this is especially important if crews run into problems during construction that end up extending a closure to a section of the street.

L N M Services at 21 Front Street had construction affect business last fall and expects it will be impacted by street closures again during the next phase of construction. L N M Services owner Lacey Soeteber, told the Sentinel Friday that roughly a month after purchasing the business last fall, the portion of the street in front of it closed for construction for two weeks.

Soeteber said during that time, she saw business decline by at least 60 percent.

“It was bad,” she said.

Soeteber is hopeful construction will move faster this year.

“But, it’s hard to say,” she said.

Ashton does not deny construction will impact businesses on some level. However, at last week’s meeting, he said project planners have taken steps to prevent problems of the past reoccurring.

“I feel very confident that we are going to move forward at a much increased speed,” he said. “There are going to be problems, though. It’s going to happen.”