MUSCATINE, Iowa – North Houser Street (Houser Hill) from Hershey Avenue to Lucas Street is now open to traffic, or at least should be Friday (Aug. 23) morning. Heuer Construction was wrapping up operations in this section of the 2019-2020 Full Depth Patch Project on Thursday (Aug. 22) by sealing the joints.
The Department of Public Works was scheduled to run the street sweeper over the surface of the repaired street before the barricades were pulled. Public Works Director Brian Stineman indicated that those barricades should be coming down by the end of work Thursday or sometime Friday morning depending on when cleanup operations are completed.
“We remind the travelling public to use caution when driving through construction areas and to be patient while we clean the repaired street,” Stineman said. “We will have the street opened as soon as we safely can.”
Meanwhile, Heuer Construction moved operations further south on Houser Street where temporary traffic lights are being used in the construction area. Heuer will be working on South Houser Street from Musser to Grandview for the next several weeks and the temporary traffic lights will be used as traffic will be reduced to one lane as work progresses.
The temporary traffic lights were purchased by Heuer Construction for the City of Muscatine as part of the Full Depth Patching Project and the City put the signals to use on various future projects.
“It is the same kind of thing that we did years ago when we acquired the two message boards that we have used in various locations including during the recent spring flooding,” Stineman said.
South Houser Street was reduced to one line just south of the Musser Street intersection where Heuer construction has already cut out the old concrete and prepared the subgrade for new pavement. The process will be repeated as the project moves further south on Houser Street.
Drivers are advised to use caution when driving through the construction area and to be patient while waiting for the traffic signals to turn green.
This is the second of five sections that will be repaired under a $919,875 Full Depth Patching contract with Heuer Construction during the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Other sections to be repaired include Lake Park Boulevard from 2nd Avenue to Park Avenue, University Drive from Highway 61 to Highway 22, and, if time and money permit, Fulliam Avenue from Kindler to Devitt and from Houser to Green Acres.