Is it a race against Mother Nature? It's been a busy construction season in the Quad Cities area and driving around you may have noticed even more projects popping up. This late in the season crews are showing no sign of slowing down and, for some projects, it might be a hurry to finish things up.
We're used to the barricades on this season's big projects like Bettendorf's Tanglefoot Lane and River Drive as well as Pine Street in Davenport. "Full steam ahead. We are going gang busters all across the city in lots of different locations," said Mike Clarke, Davenport Public Works Director.
There are also many new projects sprouting up and closing lanes across the area. In Bettendorf, several spots on 18th Street are affected as well as Devil's Glen Road thanks to sidewalk reconstruction. You may have also run into orange cones in different residential areas of Moline and Rock Island. Crews have a lot going on and it's getting late in the season.
"Definitely working as hard as we can recognizing we do have an end to the construction season," added Clarke.
Cities like to have work wrapped up late November to early December and there are some projects that still have a long way to go or still have yet to get underway completely. "I will admit to becoming slightly nervous about winter. I have nothing to base that on. I don't read the farmers almanac, I don't believe in wooly caterpillars, but when winter begins to get on my calendar I start to think about turning over dump trucks into snow plows," said Clarke.
Clarke says, even with the blazing heat this summer, many of the projects stayed close to schedule. Now with milder temperatures closing in, crews are trying to get as much done as possible while good weather lasts. "We're looking real hard at our projects right now to try to get them in before the first snow flies."
There area a couple new projects to look out for starting in the coming weeks. In Davenport, there will be a traffic safety project at 35th and Marquette. In Rock Island, street reconstruction starts soon on 44thSstreet off of Blackhawk Road. Moline is also working on alleyway fixes and seal coating throughout the city.
Mike Clarke says training for Davenport's snow plow operators will already be starting this Thursday.
