Concrete paving begins on Front Street

Paving of Wrangell’s main street began this week, as crews were set to begin pouring concrete at the north end of Front Street Wednesday.

As of earlier this week, car traffic has been blocked from approximately the north end of Campbell Drive to McKinnon Street as paving work takes place.

The section of road was torn up at the beginning of the year to install new water and sewer services as part of Wrangell’s road and utility improvement project.

At a construction progress meeting at City Hall April 12, McGraw Custom Construction Superintendent Mike Ashton said the concrete will first be poured on the sidewalks of the cul-de-sac near the city dock. Then, crews will pour curbs and gutters between Campbell Drive and McKinnon Street, before paving the street.

“There is a sequence that takes place, but we have it all planned out,” Ashton said last week.

It is estimated concrete crews will pour between 200 and 300 yards of concrete over the next week, according to Ashton.

“These guys are very fast,” he said.

Project Engineer Eric Voorhees said there are about 1,400-1,500 yards of concrete set to be poured on Front Street for the entire road and improvement project. At approximately 200 yards per week, he said that is a “good chunk per week of how much concrete we have to pour.”

Mitch McGraw of Southeast Earthmovers said concrete crews are allowed to work until midnight. And, if weather is favorable, they will be paving the road and making progress, he said.

“If they can pour, they are going to pour,” McGraw said. “We’re going to make them move as fast as we can.”

Once concrete is poured on a section of roadway, it is anticipated it will have to remain closed to car traffic for two to three days.

However, McGraw said concrete crews should be out of the cul-de-sac area by May 7 when work on the city dock is scheduled to begin.

Excavation work to install water and sewer lines continues further down Front Street, and car traffic is blocked from the south end of Campbell Drive to just passed St. Michaels Street, as of earlier this week.

The concrete work means multiple sections of Front Street are closed to car traffic.

Ashton said it is the goal to keep the concrete crews and ongoing excavation work further down Front Street as spread out as possible.

“We want to try to stay spread as far as we can, because if we block off two blocks, we have just eliminated an awful lot of vehicle traffic to an area,” he said.

The next construction progress meeting is scheduled for April 26 at 4:30 p.m. After next week’s evening meeting at City Hall, future progress meetings through early June are scheduled for the regular time of 10 a.m. every other Thursday.