North Austin Street work slowed

Though dirt hasn't been pushed around much since May 2 work is continuing to progress on the North Austin Street expansion in the city of Seguin. Residents can expect to see more activity along the developing road mid-July.
Overall project scope
This $5.3 million project adds a continuous center left-turn lane, wider shoulders to accommodate bicycle traffic and sidewalks to accommodate pedestrians. We're also upgrading the storm drain system. The overall project should wrap up by next fall (2018). Our contractor is the Curran Contracting Company of Converse, and the project is overseen by CP&Y in Austin.

A quick look at the final product ... click on the image to enlarge.

The hold-up(s)

Curran didn't expect to see a duct bank
encased in concrete like this under the road.

Several weeks ago our contractor unexpectedly ran into a duct bank with 16 conduits encased within. As part of the project we're working on the roadway elevation is dropping, and the duct bank interferes with the foundation of what will be the new roadway. The duct bank was removed May 2 and utilities are being relocated. This work is primarily taking place on weekends due to required closures to make this happen. Later this month we should be able to start working through the week as well as the major closures will no longer be required.

The subbase course of the road sets on the
subgrade which needed additional chemical
stabilization along Austin Street.

Our consultant (CP&Y) also discovered a different chemical makeup than planned for in the dirt under the road bed. Our engineers have been redesigning the roadway foundation mix (called subgrade) to accommodate. That work is being finalized in our labs and drawing rooms.
Finally, some issues surrounding the storm drain structures we are installing cropped up. The good news is we caught them early in the project and quickly got a solution; the bad news is the manufacturer making the storm drain boxes has a backlog of orders and we are six weeks from having the storm drain structures on site.


Getting started again
Rest assured we are not allowing work to go undone. We are pushing hard to get the administrative work done while the field work is resting. When the storm drain materials arrive in July we expect work to move rapidly. Curran has worked on similar projects in town before - some very recently - and has good experience advancing the project rapidly.
We do not take the inconvenience this important project imposes on residents, particularly those living along this busy corridor, or others in the community lightly. We are exerting all efforts to minimizing and eliminating additional burdens where we can. We're also looking at the work schedule to identify ways we can accelerate this project to deliver the project without delays despite the hiccup we're encountering today.