It's a race against the clock and Mother Nature to get several area road projects done. That includes one in North Davenport that has been impacting drivers since the end of July.
The work stretches from 35th to 59th Street on Welcome Way, and goes from 53rd to 59th Street on Brady Street. Iowa Department of Transportation engineers hope to wrap up in the next week, and say that the road repair and asphalt overlay work is close to being finished. However, conditions this week and in the forecast are the opposite of what crews need. Workers may end up scrambling to fit everything in before even worse weather closes in.
Jana Steil is keeping her fingers crossed. "I want it to be done as soon as possible. It's just easier for my customers to get in and out," said the owner of Bayside Tan on Welcome Way.
She has been watching the project progress over the last few months. "When they have it closed down to one and two lanes it does back up as you can tell."
It's not necessarily the forecast that has construction equipment near Kimberly Road deserted during the day. To avoid more traffic congestion, IDOT has been doing a lot of the work at night. But if the rain keeps coming down there won't be much happening then either. "Weather has set us back recently in the last 2 or 3 weeks. We're trying to stick to keeping two lanes available for traffic," said Mark Brandl of the Iowa Department of Transportation.
The asphalt overlay also needs a certain temperature, at least 45 degrees, so crews may need to switch to a daytime schedule to get things done. "We're constantly checking temperatures to make sure we have that range. We might end up having to throw that temperature requirement out the door to get it done," added Brandl.
It could mean down to one lane on roads that see 14,000 vehicles a day. Business owners say, whatever the adjustment, they'll deal with it. Many, like Steil, look forward to the final product. "We won't have the noise with the rough road we did before with the big heavy trucks. So I think it will definitely be an improvement."
IDOT anticipates the project could push into November, which isn't too far off from being on track. Some additional patchwork has also kept the cones from coming down sooner. The deteriorating thoroughfare needed about 50 percent more patchwork than crews originally expected. That extra patchwork tacked on an additional $150,000 to the project. The total cost of the repairs is about $1.8 million.
