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Paving to start in November on torn-up segment of Centennial Boulevard

      
On the Centennial Boulevard reconstruction project near High Tech Way, a crew with the contractor, Kiewit Infrastructure Co., coordinates with a cement mixer to pour concrete for a manhole that allows worker access to a drainage inlet. The manhole had previously existed but its top had to be realigned to match the less slanted crown of the roadway.
Westside Pioneer photo
Work is proceeding on the Centennial Boulevard reconstruction project, as motorists along that roadway are keenly aware.
       Started in early September, the $9 million project is in its first phase (between Garden of the Gods Road and Chesham Circle), with the initial focus on the two southbound lanes. This has meant temporarily realigning the northbound side between those streets to one lane each way.
       Since September, the contractor, Kiewit Infrastructure Co., has scraped the old southbound pavement down to the dirt, added drainage improvements, regraded the roadway “crown,” removed the bulk of the old center medians (including the trees between High Tech Way and Chesham) and finished identifying and marking the utility lines below the right of way.
       The crown is the curve designed across most roadways, so that drainage flows to the gutters on either side. The modern standard calls for a drop of 2 inches for every 100 feet, but the old Centennial crown had more of a slant, explained Joe Garcia, the project manager with city-contracted Wilson and Co.
       As a result, in flattening the crown for the new Centennial, the center of the road will be about the same elevation as before, while on either side the curb/gutter/sidewalk will be
A view north on Centennial Boulevard shows the regrading of the southbound lanes for the road reconstruction project and how the traffic temporarily necks down at Chesham Circle to one lane each way on the northbound side. The photo was shot in early September. The grassy median in the background has now been mostly removed, but will be replaced, plans state, with the landscaping not occurring until the end of the project.
Westside Pioneer photo
about two feet higher. “From a driver's perspective, it should be a smoother ride,” he said.
       The crown correction has also required the removal of all the former curb, gutter and sidewalk. “Unfortunately, with concrete, you can't just lift it up and reuse it,” Garcia noted.
       He said the next step in the project will be pouring the new concrete (including the new medians). This work is to start the week of Oct. 10. After that will come the paving, currently set to get going in the first week of November.
      
Watching the manhole work (see the photo at the top of this page) and adjusting the truck's position as needed was cement mixer driver Jessi Sosso. She said she is currently the only female driving a mixer for the Transit Mix company. Other women have tried it and left, but "I like it a lot," she said.
Westside Pioneer photo
When the southbound side is complete between Chesham and GoG Road, Kiewit's crews will shift to the northbound side.
       The city hope is to finish both sides before winter, but if weather makes that impossible (asphalt work is affected by cold), the project will be put on hold until spring. During that time, two lanes each way will be made available over temporary asphalt, city officials have said.
       The overall project, between Garden of the Gods Road and Fillmore Street, is informally broken out into three phases. Plans call for Phase 2 (Chesham to Windmill Avenue - the middle section) and Phase 3 (Windmill to Fillmore - the southern section), to be fixed in 2017.
       Plans call for the finished product to have two lanes each way, as before, plus a buffered bike lane on either side, contiguous sidewalks, and a connection to the Sinton Trail (which goes through a tunnel underneath Centennial, just north of Chesham).
       The funding ($9 million, plus $3 million for design and preliminary stormwater work) is coming from the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (RTA), for which the project is an A-list item.
       The last major work on the GoG-to-Chesham segment occurred more than 25 years ago, according to city officials.

Westside Pioneer article
(Posted 10/6/16; Transportation: Major Roads)

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