By Sierra Lauder, Director of Events and Downtown Development, Tillamook Area Chamber of Commerce
This week started with a few nice days, and there has been a huge flurry of activity to make the most of the sun break. Flagging continues downtown through Wednesday, moving from the trenching work required for drainage on Fourth Street up to the east side of intersection of Third and Main and then the west side of the junction of First and Main, where sawcutting will proceed trenching that is necessary for electrical work. Continue to expect some traffic delays as a result of that flagging, and plan your route accordingly.
While the flagging is related to underground work that make it hard to visually track progress, in other areas we can easily see how things are coming together and things are moving along. The final sidewalk pour between Second and Third took place Monday, and as soon as the curing period passes that entire block will reopen for through pedestrian traffic. The final radial pours in front of the Pioneer Museum are scheduled for this week, as is the bioswale in front of Sunset Tans, the northern part of the Front Street sidewalk, and the curbing of the corner of Third and Main in front of Homelife Furniture. Unfortunately, the weather does not look as promising heading in to next week, and plans to pour the sidewalk on Fourth and the sidewalk on the north end of the block between First and Second may be delayed depending on the rain.
The other big pour that has been scheduled will take place this Saturday, March 10th: The Bridge Deck. This is a huge amount of concrete, and, unlike the sidewalks (which only take a day or two to set up), two full weeks have been dedicated after the pour for things to cure completely. Don’t expect to see activity dry up on the bridge, however. Next Monday the plan is to dive in to the formation of the end walls, so work will continue to move along quickly there.
Only a couple of weeks before spring break, and the additional traffic is heavy on everyone’s minds. There have been some very slow days moving southbound in to downtown, and tensions have been high. Please try and keep in mind that no one is excited to be waiting in that line, and do your best to proceed with caution and forgiveness. Zipper merging is not only legal, but encouraged, and folks who are hovering in the middle of the road or blocking traffic have been cited. However bad your day is due to the slow traffic, a ticket or an accident is much worse: be careful.
