MUSCATINE, Iowa – It may not look like not much is being accomplished along the Mississippi Drive Corridor Reconstruction Project (MDCRP), but there has been significant progress as the project moves into what is expected to be the final month of construction. Work on 2nd Street is expected to be completed near the end of October and Phase 4A of the West Hill Sewer Separation Project is expected to wrap up early in November.
MISSISSIPPI DRIVE CORRIDOR RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT
A three-day closure of Mississippi Drive from Iowa Avenue to Chestnut Street was completed this week allowing KMA Excavating to clean out the storm and sanitary sewer lines of gravel and miscellaneous debris accumulated during the construction process between those two intersections and video record the interior of those lines, a process that was not completed last fall before Phase I (Broadway to Iowa) was reopened to traffic.
Brickwork for the median between the westbound driving lane and the condominium/hotel entrance lane was also completed by Hardscape Solutions, Inc. (HIS), KE Flatworks completed removal of a step at the Chestnut Street railroad pedestrian crossing, and Heritage Landscaping was on hand to weed and mulch the median planting beds.
Phase 2 (Iowa to Mulberry) continues to move toward completion with the sidewalk on the town side of Mississippi Drive completed and just a section on the upriver side of Mulberry Avenue yet to be completed. KE Flatwork has also been backfilling the medians and intersections of Cedar and Walnut with dirt in anticipation of the landscaping crew arriving on Aug. 20.
Heister Masonry has completed the majority of work on the monument located near the Walnut Street intersection and is currently working on installing the stone for the intersection markers. The monument is a twin to the one located at the Pine Street intersection and marks the entrance to the Downtown area.
The last two weeks of August may see some significant action in Phase 2 with a flagger from the Canadian Pacific Railroad on hand as KE Flatworks prepares, pours, and finishes the railroad crossing into Riverfront Park, and Muscatine Power & Water (MPW) begins installation of traffic signal lights at the Cedar Street intersection and installation of lights from Sycamore to Iowa.
Phase 2 of the MDCRP is tentatively scheduled for completion by Sept. 29, weather depending.
2ND STREET – Mulberry to Mad Creek
Underground work in the Oak Street intersection with 2nd Street is tentatively scheduled to wrap up this week with Taylor Ridge Drilling arriving on Monday, Aug. 13, to drill the foundations for the traffic standards. Once that is completed work will begin on preparing the intersection for paving.
A brief water outage will occur from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. as KMA Excavating relocates a water main in the Oak Street intersection. The outage will mostly affect Danny’s Sales & Service.
Work from the railroad crossing east to Mad Creek will continue for the next month. The tentative completion date for 2nd Street from the railroad crossing to just west of Family Dollar is Sept. 18, and Nov. 12 for the section from Family Dollar to Mad Creek. The Oak Street intersection is tentatively scheduled to be completed by Oct. 1.
WEST HILL SEWER SEPARATION PROJECT
The Spruce Street intersection is currently closed as KMA Excavating continues work on the sanitary sewer out of the manhole in that intersection towards Locust Street. KMA anticipates being able to complete the sanitary sewer to Locust and the storm sewer work on Linn and Locust before the end of August. That will leave just two sections of sanitary sewer to be completed in Phase 4 including Spruce toward 8th Street (tentatively scheduled to be completed Sept. 12) and Locust toward 8th Street (tentatively scheduled to be completed Sept. 21).
The Chestnut Street intersection remains closed as work continues to prepare the section of 7th Street from Iowa to Linn for paving. Installation of water services has delayed the completion of prepping the three blocks for paving but KE Flatwork anticipates beginning paving August 20 starting at the Iowa intersection and proceeding west. Depending on the weather, these three blocks are tentatively scheduled to reopen to traffic by Sept. 17.
Work on preparing and paving Linn to Locust streets is tentatively scheduled Aug. 17-Sept. 28 with the final two sections (Spruce toward 8th and Locust toward 8th) tentatively scheduled Sept. 17-Oct. 26.
Phase 4A of the West Hill Sewer Separation Project is tentatively scheduled to be completed by November 9. The original contract date was November 30.
FULL DEPTH PATCHING PROJECT
All-American Concrete anticipates returning to the 2018 Full Depth Patching Project by the middle of next week. Division Street between Evans Street and Breese Avenue remains closed with one section of roadway yet to be prepped and paved. This is the only full street closure of the project but a date to reopen the street has not been set yet.
Once Division Street is complete, All-American will move to Stewart Road where they will replace several sections of the road. This will necessitate lane closures but no full closure of Stewart Road. Houser Street is next on the list.