State Route 36 project likely to take another year
It will probably take another year to complete the State Route 36 improvement project in the Buck Mountain area. Crews are now readying that location for winter weather and will resume work next year.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) said that unless temporarily necessitated for the safety of the traveling public, the two daily, four-hour closures of State Route 36 are no longer in effect. Motorists will experience one-way controlled traffic and be subject to up to 30-minute delays.
Mercer-Fraser is the contractor doing the roadway improvement work. Mercer-Fraser Project Manager Mark Benzinger said, “We have completed the project as far as can be done this year without further designs and direction from FHWA on how to address areas that have failed…(from) last winter’s wet weather and this year’s construction.”
According to FHWA the winter of 2018-1019 proved to be detrimental to the project, with significant land movement and damages due to heavy rain and snow.
Benzinger said, “We are currently working to pave two areas in completed section of the project and button up the site for winter. Coming back next spring, we anticipate having the information needed to start work on the remaining storm damage repair area from last winter and the major slide repairs within the project that developed this year.”
He said the ultimate completion date of the projects will depend on the scope of the additional work that will be needed, but it is anticipated that it will take at least one more season.
According to FHWA one of the major accomplishments this year was the construction of a challenging 190-foot long, 10-foot diameter, steel-plated culvert and associated inlet and outlet headwalls in Burr Creek. Other work completed includes multiple drainage systems, rock work, wall elements, roadway excavation and grading, slope excavation and stabilization, hydroseeding, and repair work on multiple locations of last winter’s storm damage.