Going strong despite delays
Expected to be completed late February, early March
“I thought this thing was going to be done a long time ago,” is something City Public Works Director Mike Reed has been hearing quite often regarding the Jaye Street Bridge Widening Project.
“Well, it is not working out that way for us right now,” is a common response from Reed.
The project, which broke ground in mid-september of last year, saw several delays, which together set the completion of the project back several months.
“The delays are really mainly because of the great year of water that we had, and that was a good thing,” Reed said, adding that the project is scheduled to be completed in late February or early March of next year. “But, on the other end of the stick, it [rain] wasn’t good for the bridge project.”
In addition to the rain, Reed said the delays were also due to difficult pile driving conditions and flood releases from Success Lake. However, the difficult pile driving conditions complicated everything the most.
“It is very difficult to anticipate what’s underneath the ground that you can’t see,” Reed said, adding that during pile driving operations, an unexpected discovery of an underground boulder layer deformed eight piles that required additional work to provide stable support for the bridge. “Once you start digging into something, you really don’t know what you may run into below the surface.”
The project has not only seen several delays, but Reed noted that the price of the project has also gotten more expensive, which is a direct result of the delays.
“Definitely what cost us extra money was all of the erosion that was occurring underneath the bridge, near the bridge abutment on the south side,” Reed said.
As a result of the extra costs, Reed went before the Porterville City Council back in July requesting the council to authorize a total $855,222.85 to keep the project moving forward.
Funding, Reed said, is being covered by the Highway Bridge Program (HBP) at a ratio of 85 percent, which he said will help cover construction costs, consultant services, design engineer services and construction management services. The 15 percent local share will require additional Local Transportation Funds (LTF). He added that all of the costs are being paid by local monies until the closeout of the project.
“Caltrans requires that the city carry the project due to exceeding allowable contingencies, but the city will be reimbursed once the final invoice is sent,” Reed said.
About two weeks ago, crews transitioned traffic from the old deck on the west side of the bridge to the new deck on the east side.
“It is a little bit of a mess in there right now,” Reed said.
Crews are now focusing on work on the bridge’s existing deck.
“What you see on the east side, the new deck, needs to be mimicked on the west side,” Reed said, adding, “So they have to actually cut off the railing and the sidewalk on the west side to mimic what we did on the east side, where the new deck is at.”
In addition to underground work, replacing a waterline, and getting the deck work done, crews will also work on repairing the deck.
“They will be doing some repair work on the older concrete and they will be pouring symmetrical configuration where the nostalgic lights are at and the pedestrian walkway corridor is at,” Reed said.
After that’s done, crews will pour the remainder of the median islands. Reed said there is a median island on the south side and the north side of the bridge and noted that there will also be a median island across the bridge as well.
However, Reed said before crews work on the median island across the bridge, they will need to pour a closure pour between the old deck and the new deck.
“Once all of that is done, they will go in and pave the road on the west side,” Reed said, adding, “That is when we will be able to open up fullblown traffic.”
Reed noted that while crews are doing asphalt work on the west side of the bridge, they will have to redo the entire intersection of Springville and Jaye Street, which he said will be the most disruptive work to the public.
“We will be reviewing a traffic control plan on how best to do that,” Reed said, adding that such work may be done at night. “We don’t know for sure yet, but those are some conversations that are going to take place with the contractor.”
Reed said there is not a definite time as to when such work will be scheduled, but noted that it may be the last item, along with modifications to a traffic signal.
Either that or Southern California Edison’s (SCE) streetlight installations, which Project Manager Javier Sanchez said is tough to say.
“They [SCE] could do it [streetlight installations] on the east side [of the bridge] because the concrete work is done,” Sanchez said, adding that putting the poles up on the west side wouldn’t be a good idea right now. “They are still moving around lots of equipment and they [streetlights] could get hit and damaged.”
Once all work is completed, the Jaye Street Bridge, which was constructed in 1970, will be widened to four lanes, and will be 83-feet wide, 242-feet long with 5-foot wide sidewalks on both the east and west sides of the bridge. Each side will also have a concrete barrier identical to the one on Plano and Main Street.
The new reconstruction will extend beyond the bridge from Date Avenue to Springville Avenue.