With the cruise ship season starting this month, crews are working near City Dock to finish pouring concrete in the cul-de-sac hoping to have the area paved before the tourists start arriving in Wrangell.
The city is also making improvements to the City Dock this year and the contractor for that project is scheduled to arrive in town soon.
That is why the cul-de-sac is being paved with concrete before Front Street, said Mitch McGraw of Southeast Earthmovers at an April 26 meeting on Wrangell’s road and utility improvement project.
“The reason the cul-de-sac is getting done first, not the road, is due to the fact they have cruise ships coming, and the city has a contract with another contractor coming to work on the dock…,” McGraw said. “So we had to do the concrete there first.”
Once the concrete work is finished in the cul-de-sac, McGraw said paving on Front Street will begin at the north end of Campbell Drive and move towards McKinnon Street.
The first batch of concrete in the cul-de-sac was poured nearly two weeks ago. McGraw Custom Construction Superintendent Mike Ashton said paving Front Street will move faster than it has in the cul-de-sac.
“The concrete in the cul-de-sac is [taking] a lot longer than the streets are going to take because the concrete is 2.2 times thicker than everything else. It’s going to go a lot faster on the road,” he said.
Once crews begin paving Front Street, Ashton said it’s likely two blocks at a time will be closed to car traffic.
“We’re pretty much going to be taking up two blocks as concrete goes all the way down the street,” he said.
Access to all downtown businesses remains open during the construction.
The next construction update meeting is scheduled for May 10 at 10 a.m. at City Hall.
Reader Comments(0)