Overland Park Coalition BLOG

Roadway Restoration

2010-06-08T17:13:00.000-07:00

Water Environment Services has been working closely with the County Transportation Department and our contractor to come up with a roadway restoration plan that will give the community some very good roadways – in addition to the new sanitary sewers. The option of “grinding up the old material and repaving” is what we refer to as a Cement Treated Base (CTB) restoration – and it is an option that will be used on the worst streets. On some other streets, that have a considerable amount of asphalt still remaining, different approaches will be used for their restoration – with very good results anticipated. The deciding factors of which restoration scenario to use include:

· Amount of existing asphalt on streets

· Amount of gravel base

· Type of material underneath the gravel base

· Amount of traffic anticipated on the street

Here is a summary of what the current planned roadway restoration for the major streets looks like, but may be adapted to a modified final product depending on actual findings at the time of restoration efforts (or in other words, whatever will create the best end-product for the investment):

· Needham Street and Laura Avenue will receive the CTB pulverization process and two lifts of asphaltic cement (AC) over the top

· Jordan Street, 64^th Avenue, 65^th Avenue, Alder Place, May Street and Overland Street (between May and Linwood) have a significant amount of AC already (except where our trench went). We will put 2” of asphalt in to cap off the trench and then overlay the entire street with an additional layer of AC.

· Needham Court will received two lifts of AC

· Overland Street (between May and Bell) will receive either a CTB restoration, or have the remaining surfacing removed and a leveling course of gravel added and two lifts of AC over the top. Final determination will be made when the street is cleaned up and re-evaluated.

As to the concern about surface water runoff; this repaving should make little difference on that issue. All roadways were crowned (slightly higher in the middle of the road) before our project began, which made it so that the rainwater would run towards both sides and along the sides, but did not typically flow across the street. Stormwater running off into adjacent areas has always been an issue when there are no storm sewers or ditches, but the resurfacing of streets planned should not make any significant change in this – neither better or worse.

All paved driveways will be well tapered into. Shoulder rock will be placed along the sides of the new AC.

Dewayne Kliewer, P. E.

Water Environment Services

Sewer Project Impact on Neighborhood

2010-03-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

Thank-you for the communication and for your concern for the neighborhood streets and the neighbors that live along them. We share that concern, and I trust that the following information will alleviate any long-term concerns you may have.

I am the design and construction manager of this challenging project; Pat Bucklein is our construction inspector, You can reach Pat at 503-793-9809 or you can reach me at 503-793-7291, to express concerns or to dialogue about construction related issues.

What you are seeing out there is not unusual for construction of a sewer line that is an average of 10-feet deep on the streets you mentioned, plus laterals to all properties on both sides of the street. The equipment is much larger and the construction takes longer than it would for a much smaller and much shallower gas line. You are correct in noting that the streets were not “the greatest” before construction – we are finding that the majority of these side streets have little or no gravel under the relatively thin layer of asphalt.

We too have noted that the construction equipment is wiping out a lot of the surfacing that remains adjacent to these trenches – which is also due to the fact that they have little gravel under the pavement. But, based on cores taken during design, we were anticipating this as well.

Now the good news – although this condition is a situation that requires a lot of patience from all local residents, it will be for the long-term good of the neighborhood. We have planned from the beginning of the projects design that many of the streets would not hold up and that we would not only pave the trench sections but that would also be needing to completely resurface the majority of the streets from edge to edge. The minimum requirement of “restoring the roadway to original condition” will be far surpassed with the end product.

We can assure you that no paving will be done over mud. As a minimum, our contractor will be removing soft sections of base and replacing with leveling gravel and a leveling course of gravel, before a final lift of pavement is placed over-all. We do have a couple of streets that were constructed with a better structural section when they were initially built, and those will likely survive the construction equipment and receive trench patching as the final product. However, most of the streets will end up having to be reconstructed, to a great degree.

In the interim, the contractor has the responsibility to make these roads “passable” and to try and maintain the gravel surfacing to accommodate the local traffic. The contractor is responsible to maintain the gravel and has been quite responsive when areas of concern are brought to his attention. We could even place a temporary asphalt patch in the trenches, but are trying to keep costs down so that we can allocate more funds toward the expanded final paving efforts, without driving up the final construction costs and the final assessments to all the property owners.

As soon as a few key items synchronize, we will begin the resurfacing of the completed streets with pavement. Those key items would include:

· Adequate lengths of street that have been completed with all mainline and service laterals having been installed.

· Compaction testing of the backfill and air testing of the pipeline all passing

· Favorable weather that will allow for the repaving efforts, including the prep efforts required on the sub-base (not like we are seeing today)

Our full-time inspector, Pat Bucklein, has been in constant contact with members of the neighborhood, as construction moves ahead. He has reported that the individuals he has spoken with are both understanding of the construction challenges and supportive of the project, as a whole.

I trust that this information has answered your concerns and given you an understanding of the goals we share for the final condition of the streets. If you have any additional questions or observations, I would welcome those. We would also extend that invitation to all local residents, in that if any of the citizens in the project area have concerns, we would encourage them to contact us directly so we can address them.

Sincerely,

Dewayne Kliewer, PE

Water Environment Services

Design & Construction Project Manager

530-793-7291

Dry Wells?

2010-02-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

If the dry well is in the Public Right of Way, the direct line to Clackamas County Road Maintenance is (503) 557-6391.

Rob Hungerford, WES

Why isn’t the sewer line in Needham in the middle of street?

2010-02-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

The location of the line on Needham is dictated due to proximity ( and clearance allowances desired) to other existing utilities.

Rob Hungerford, WES

Laterals

2010-01-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

Our inspector Pat Bucklein is out and about the project daily. As the contractor prepares to install pipe on a street Pat makes every effort to contact homeowners to double check on the location for the service connection lateral. He tells me he is now getting requests for second laterals on some properties. You may want to reinforce the point that asking for a second lateral does not mean a property can automatically divide. Only the County Planning Department can make that determination.

Rob Hungerford, WES

When Can I Hook up?

2010-01-28T14:41:00.000-08:00

Regarding the party who is excited to get hooked up. Hook ups will not be allowed until all the pipe downstream of any given point of connection is complete, that statement seems simple enough but, because of the construction schedule the lower sections of pipe (under Johnson Creek and beyond) may not be completed until much later this spring or early summer. Normally we start construction at the lowest point and lay pipe uphill. While we will still be following this method we will be out of order on the sections we construct. This may cause some confusion and angst with people waiting to connect and not understanding why they may have to wait several months to connect although it appears the line in front of their house is finished and ready for service.

Rob Hungerford, WES