In addition to flowers and tourists, the sunshine that is on its way is going to be coating the town with asphalt. When the sun burns through on May 17th, expect to see the project crews swarming over the bridge this entire weekend as they ready the new structure to accept traffic on May 24th.
To do that, the balance of the bridge sidewalks, rails, and overlook need to get poured in order to ready everything for the pavers, who are coming on Monday May 22. Once the pavers arrive, plans are to work right through Monday and Tuesday nights getting the bridge paved in two, three-inch lifts and a temporary tie-in laid back to Main Avenue. Late on Tuesday night, May 23, the flaggers and stripers will take over, realigning the lanes so that northbound traffic up Main will be guided over onto the new bridge come May 24th, Wednesday morning.
It may be a bit rough on Wednesday as the finishing touches are put on and everyone gets used to the new alignment but by the end-of-day, the switch should be complete with two lanes open for the southbound on Main over the old bridge and one lane running north over the new bridge. This so-called ‘Memorial Day Configuration’ will probably be in place until the middle of July when the south approach should be completed and northbound traffic will no longer have to take the dogleg around the old Shell Station, but can roll directly off of Pacific onto the new bridge.
While all of that is underway, starting May 17th, the flatwork crews will be finishing up the decorative quilted concrete panels on Second Street in a series of four pours working from Main toward Pacific. This should complete the puzzle and enable the streetscape pieces such as the kiosk and covered bike rack to be installed shortly thereafter with the bollards completing the plaza once they arrive in the next few weeks. The Cork’n Brew festivities on June 16th will inaugurate the Plaza, as it will then be ready for summertime events.
Now that the traffic has been shifted to two lanes on the west side of Pacific Avenue, work on the east side sidewalks is also in full swing. To get portions of the demolition work done, there will be some nightwork required in the next few weeks that will close one of the lanes, but for the most part, construction can otherwise occur using the parking bays without limiting the two northbound lanes.
As if that weren’t enough to deal with, this intense ODOT construction schedule is going to be matched by the paving of the last of the City’s sewerline project on First Street. The grinding of First from Stillwell to Cedar and then around the corner to 4th and west is set to happen Friday May 19th so that overlay paving can follow behind starting Monday May 22nd. Please beware of the manhole covers and other obstructions sticking up along that route over the weekend and expect to be rerouted in that area beginning of next week.