Construction on the road and utility improvement project continues to travel down Front Street and project leads hope to reach Lynch Street by the end of next week.
At the last construction update meeting Feb. 16, crews were near the intersection of Front and McKinnon streets. At that meeting, Superintendent of McGraw Custom Construction Mike Ashton said it was his goal to have had crews moved down Front Street to the next intersection, but progress would be dependent on the amount of rock beneath the road.
“It will all depend on more rock,” he said. “Everything is on rock right now, it’s slowed us down.”
In the past, crews have had to break through unexpected depths of rock in order to install the new water and sewer lines and storm drains. Ashton said in some cases, crews were forced to chip away up to eight feet of rock.
“It has just stopped us dead,” he said.
Despite the challenges faced during construction, Project Engineer Eric Voorhees said the project is moving along.
“There is a lot of rock, but I personally think we’re still making very good progress,” he said.
The Wrangell road improvement 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 first phase of the five-phase project began last August.
This year’s traffic control plans on focusing on a smaller section of road instead of an entire phase of the project. That has also proven beneficial, Voorhees said, as it allows traffic to move at a more manageable level around the work site.
“It’s easier to route people around a smaller-section of road,” he said.
Short-term water and sewer outages are expected as work moves down Front Street. Ashton said he would personally be notifying people and businesses when their utilities will be affected by construction work. A letter will be hand delivered, and “no one will be surprised,” he said.
When exactly those businesses will be affected will again be “completely dependent” on the condition of road crews are digging up, Ashton said.
“If it’s no rock, it’s fast. If it’s rock, it slows us way down,” he said.
Local business owner Jeff Angerman asked if the construction team could broadcast frequent construction updates on the local radio station, KSTK. The project has a long way to go, Angerman said, and it would be nice for people to know where construction crews are working and where road access is blocked off.
“It’s really, really important that people know how to get to your business. That’s the bottom line,” he said.
Voorhees and Ashton said they would look into it.
Construction updates are posted on Wrangell’s website, Wrangell.com, where a link to a live web cam showing the construction work can also be found.
The next scheduled construction update is scheduled for March 1 at 10 a.m. at City Hall.
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