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Workers rough it on redesign front lines By Sean Wolfe Ashland Daily Tidings Incessant rain and mud did little to dampen the spirits of the crews racing to complete the mammoth $1.3 million rebuilding project on Siskiyou Boulevard. In spite of the muck - and the necessity to maneuver heavy equipment in tightly confined medians amid moving traffic - crew foremen and city public works officials say the effort is on schedule, despite slight weather-related delays. It's nothing but mud and muck for road workers like Chris Fay (left) who bore the brunt of the Siskiyou Boulevard redesign work under gloomy, wet conditions on Tuesday afternoon. Ashland Daily Tidings/DENISE BARATTA Sean McClafferty, a job site foreman for construction company LTM Inc., said the rain was less of a factor than one might suspect. "By Oregon standards, this is pretty good, isn't it? It's kind of a unique situation. On one hand, we're stuck in the middle of the road, dealing with traffic. On the other hand, we've got lots of paved road to move around on - and everything's nice and flat," McClafferty said. "The challenging part of this job is the traffic. It's an enormous factor." According to Dale Rund, an LTM equipment operator, the traffic snarl caused by lane closures on the boulevard makes for a variety of delays. Crews try their best to be "good citizens" Rund said, and defer to passing traffic whenever possible. As a result, work is slowed down. In addition, flatbed drivers bringing the 300-pound lengths of concrete storm drain to lay in the median must also contend with the traffic jams caused by the project. As a result, Rund said, crews can lay pipe in the median faster than they can transport it from LTM's "lay down yard," located at the corner of Ashland Street and Walker. "All that slows our production a bit," Rund said. "We don't want to run people over, and we try to be careful. We also have to drive through that same traffic to bring over new material, and by the time we get here, load it up, and bring it over, that's a half hour or better," he said. Despite the logistical problems, McClafferty and Ashland City Assistant Engineer Karl Johnson maintain that the project is on schedule. "It's going fine. It's slow, but it's OK. We slowed down a little right around the holidays, because we got so much rain. But the last few days haven't been too bad, and the crews have been dealing with it," Johnson said. According to Johnson, lane closures along the boulevard will continue to be a fact of life until mid-summer. Next month crews expect to wrap most of their median work and begin working on curbs and landscaping. In February, lane closures will switch to the right-hand side, as crews begin their curb work, while southbound lane closures will remain the same as landscaping of the new medians begins. In the meantime, traffic will continue to be dense during the morning, lunchtime, and evening commutes, and drivers should plan accordingly. "We're trying to encourage as many people as possible to choose North Main and other arteries as often as possible. The biggest problem we're facing is where Mountain Avenue joins Siskiyou. Traffic always seems to be pretty dense around there," Johnson said. Once the islands are finished mid-February, traffic will then switch to the finished inside lanes, and work will begin on both Iowa and Beach streets. Iowa will be closed permanently at the intersection of Beach Street and Siskiyou Boulevard, requiring drivers to detour at Liberty or Morton streets to gain access to the boulevard. In addition, Beach will be closed for two weeks while crews realign the street to meet with the boulevard at a right angle. LTM is slated to dedicate up to four crews to work simultaneously in order to make their December 2003 deadline for the project's completion. The contractor is working on an accelerated schedule, in part because the construction effort was originally expected to begin in August. Now LTM is on schedule to wrap its median efforts by March, and landscaping is set for completion in May. If the work goes off as planned, it will be the second year in a row Ashland's central traffic arteries have undergone a significant overhaul. This past summer saw construction efforts clog downtown traffic for weeks on end, as Oregon Department of Transportation worked on repaving streets throughout the city. At the height of ODOT's effort last summer, citizens and business owners were critical of the timing of the street work, suggesting that adding street congestion at the height of Ashland's vital tourist season was bad for business. In addition, revelers at the city's annual Fourth of July parade may have to find another place to spread their blankets and chairs this year. According to Johnson, public works doesn't have a plan in place to accommodate parade-goers, but he remained optimistic that by the time the floats begin their trek down the boulevard, something would be done. "We've talked about it, but we haven't made a decision yet. We've been really wrapped up in keeping the project moving," Johnson said. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -