A pavement replacement project on Interstate 30 in Saline County just west of the Hot Springs exit should be complete by mid-March, an Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department official said Friday.
The 3-mile-long work zone has been active since April 2015 and was initially expected to be complete around the end of September, but unexpected issues have delayed the completion date, Danny Straessle, public information officer of the AHTD, said Friday.
Straessle said the stretch of highway under construction was a test area that was designed to fail over a period of time so that the pavement could be studied as to how it failed, and different maintenance techniques could be studied to see how the pavement responded to preservation and other testing, such as paint and striping.
"That study period ended, so we had to go in there and rip up the road and basically rebuild it from scratch. The contractor got in there and realized as they were tearing the pavement out and resetting the grade that the soil wasn't what we expected it to be, so we had to do some stabilization in there.
"They took it down to the nub and beyond, reset the grade, and we're going to put fresh concrete on top of it and that is what they are doing," he said.
Straessle said the contractor is Weaver-Bailey of El Paso in White County.
"There have been delays due to some subsurface and soil issues that we ran into, so there was some stabilization efforts that had to be done and some change orders that we had to approve so that extra work we didn't account for could be done," he said.
On top of that, Straessle said some heavy rain events made the non-stabilized soil even worse and that prohibited the contractor from working on the project for some time, and then cold weather months added to the delays.
"You really can't place concrete in cold weather; however, the last couple of weeks have been the exception because we've had some really agreeable temperatures well into the 50s and 60s, even on the weekends. Those are ideal conditions for placing concrete, so the contractor has been able to get in there and make some great strides in placing the remaining lane of concrete," he said.
Straessle said the outside, or right-hand lane, has been completed and work is underway on the inside lane.
"They have been making pretty good progress and their prediction for substantial completion is the middle of March. If they get it done sooner than that, I think everybody wouldn't mind if they were able to do that," he said.
Straessle said the original completion date was in late September, but these type delays are not unique for a construction project because they are working out in the elements.
"We do core samples to try to get a good idea of what is there, and there can be surprises on a job that can lead to a delay. It's certainly not a situation of negligence on the part of the contractor or the highway department. It's just one of those things where we're at the mercy of the weather and the timing of the seasons," he said.
"Our original hope was to get in, get it done, and get out before Thanksgiving and cold weather, but then we had the soil issues and rain and that started dragging us down. That's where we are right now, and to give credit to the contractor, they have taken advantage of some of these beautiful days we've had recently and have made a lot of progress," he said.
While the construction has caused numerous traffic delays for months and several accidents have occurred in the work zone, and traffic en route to Hot Springs for events including the live race meet at Oaklawn Racing & Gaming has been impacted, Straessle said he believes the traffic has adapted to the situation.
"This work zone has been in progress since April, so at least for this race season, the public was well aware of the challenges of getting through that work zone and onto Highway 70 well before the race season started," Straessle said.
He said the highway department has also kicked off a campaign on Twitter to remind motorists every race day that they should visit http://www.idrivearkansas.com to check the traffic in the work zone, and adjust their start time or plan an alternate route.
"So far it's worked really well," he said.
Straessle said that since the Highway 70 widening project from Hot Springs to I-30 has been combined into one project, racetrack patrons will be impacted more by that than the current work zone in Saline County.
"Our plan is to reach out to Oaklawn and see if we can't help communicate to their patrons to expect delays in work zones, and perhaps adjust their trip times to get down there for the first race. We have extended an inquiry and haven't gotten started yet, but it's something we plan to do. We hope to work with the track and communicate that because that project will be through two racing seasons," he said.
Local on 02/06/2016