Campbell Drive focus of roads meeting

Concern over momentum in construction along Front Street was a main topic discussed during the Wrangell Road and Utility Improvement project team meeting on June 7.

After going over details related to work completed during the past two weeks, Borough Manager Tim Rooney told project engineer Eric Voorhees about concerns Wrangellites have voiced to his office in recent days.

“In the last three days I have probably had more questions about the lack of progress than I have had since November,” Rooney stated. “People are feeling like there are sunny days and they’re not seeing concrete getting poured. They’ve told me they see sidewalks being done, but they’re not seeing the road progress.”

Voorhees, along with Mitch McGraw of Southeast Earthmovers, said there was an explanation for that perception.

“I think a whole lot of progress can be seen in just one day,” Voorhees said. “A lot of the prep work can happen over the course of a few days, and then Southeast Concrete can pour a whole bunch of concrete in one day. So, for a few days it will look like nothing is happening, but then a bunch will be done and get done.”

“We have spent a lot of time in front of the Fourth of July booths to get those sidewalks done,” McGraw added. “That way they won’t be fenced up with orange so much. We spent more time getting that done and we’re trying to get to Campbell Drive by the Fourth.”

The completion of the intersection of Front Street and Campbell Drive is imperative to the annual Fourth of July parade that is held in downtown – and is directly adjacent to the area where floats and other parade participants are staged.

Ashton later added that work continuing past Campbell Drive would not begin for “roughly” two weeks.

After the meeting, Ashton said completion of the Campbell Drive intersection for the Fourth of July is a benchmark his crew is working hard to accomplish.

“Although the schedule does not have us completing the intersection of Campbell and Front until July 15, the contractors are doing everything in their power to get concrete laid by 4th,” Ashton said. “This is a tall order in light of the fact we were just informed that we are about to receive a change order. That’s going to change some of the sub-grade installations in this intersection. Having said this, we are still shooting at having this completed by the Fourth.”

“The city is working on an electrical change order that will need to be installed in this area, and the city is working really well with us, and they do not want to slow progress,” Ashton added.

Overhangs on a number of buildings in the work zone are also creating headaches for McGraw and his crew.

“Once we get to certain point it will easier because of the overhangs,” McGraw added. “With the drug store overhang we have to backhoe and get into the ditch to try to reach the building. Once we get past the overhangs we can bring in the big hoe and boom, we’re done. The little one takes a lot longer.”

The next meeting of the project group will be this morning at City Hall beginning at 10 a.m. The July 5 meeting has been cancelled due to the holiday festivities.