Thursday, December 12

Temperatures cooling work (and other Wurzbach Parkway stuff)

Near-freezing temperatures are delaying pavement scheduled for Jones-Maltsberger and for the western segment of the parkway, causing project managers to find creative solutions to getting work done while waiting on critical asphalt work.

TxDOT specifications require temperatures above 60 degrees to lay asphalt. That temperature is not a problem for most of the year in this part of Texas, but with the winter norther blowing through the area work across the area is slowing.

Millers will be moving across the western portion of the parkway this week, preparing the road for a final surface of asphalt. Paving crews are tentatively scheduled to move in next week – Monday – if temperatures have risen enough to get the work done.

On Jones-Maltsberger, the subgrade and base is built; project managers are waiting for paving crews to come through to finish the future southbound lanes of the city street so traffic can be moved to its next phase. That shift – the final shift before traffic is put into its final configuration – will divide northbound and southbound traffic, allowing for a work area between the two directions of traffic.

Temperatures are also impacting the ability to pour concrete, which requires temperatures at least in the 40s before concrete can be poured. Most of the work being held up by inability to pour concrete is on the east side of the project, including the concrete paving blocks near the brush site operated by the city of San Antonio on Old Bitters Road.

For more on the Wurzbach Parkway project, see the latest newsletter here.