Extended Road Construction
|  Video
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| Amanda Tetlak |
| 10/2/2009 |
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| Weather like today`s is not ideal for road construction. And as winter looms ahead, crews are scrambling to get all the work done. The three-and-a-half mile project just south of the University of Mary is behind schedule, but the project engineer is hopeful most of the work will be done by deadline. Harley Swenson lives right in the middle of the construction along Highway 1804. He worked as an engineer for years, so he knows a little about what has been going on outside his home this summer. "They`re not going to make their deadline, but on the other hand we do have a month of construction season left," says Swenson. "When you go into winter with something less than a paved road it`s not pretty. But I`m pretty confident they`ll get it done by the first of November." The actual deadline is October 10, and the project engineer says the road should be close to done by then, but the finishing touches like seeding and incidentals won`t. He says a wet summer set them back. "When you`re working with dirt you can`t do much with it until it dries back out," says Ted Heinert, of the Department of Transportation. "So that has compounded our problems. I would say we`ve probably lost with this last episode, I`d say close to three weeks." In addition to repaving the three-and-a-half mile stretch, sharp curves are also getting flattened out, which has been a safety concern for Swenson. "We`ve had some accidents particularly on the curve just east of the University of Mary," he says. "And that curve needed to be fixed." He says he has had to deal with a little inconvenience this summer, but it will be worth it. "We`ve had gravel roads all summer, but they`ve maintained them," Swenson says. "We`ve lived with a few months of mud to look forward to a better project in the end." The project engineer says another problem was a shorter working season this summer. Because of the bad spring, crews weren`t able to get equipment out until late May. |
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