A progress report from the Town about the water main project would be very helpful at this point, including an estimate for the completion date for the project.
Hopefully, before school starts. This is because a number of things seem to have changed from the Town's initial projections in regard to timeframe and road closures. Members of the crew tell me that they typically lay about 6 sections of 22 foot pipe per 8 hour shift, or 132 feet per day. From Reservoir Road to the flower pot is approximately half a mile, and another half mile to Ballfield Road, for a total of about 5,200 running feet. Divided by 132 feet per shift, that’s about 40 working days, or 8 weeks, taking the pipe-laying phase of the project to late September, after which they’ll need to hook all the houses up to finish the job. The workers indicate that the project was significantly delayed by the unexpected complexity of Lincoln’s antiquated piping system, causing them to have to prepare far more temporary lines than would be expected before they could proceed with the replacement pipes. The foregoing is based entirely on casual conversations with those workers whom I’ve run into out in the road itself, not the engineers or top brass who may know better than they what the status of the project is. The workers also indicate that the original expectation that one-lane road closures would be common, and complete closures rare, has been superseded by a determination by the Lincoln Police that single lane closures are too dangerous for the workers under OSHA, at least until the project reaches the flower pot, due to the narrowness of Bedford Road as compared with Lincoln Road. As I said, the foregoing is just what the guys in the trenches have told me; it would be nice to have an official progress report. As well as an explanation why the configuration of the existing piping wasn’t initially understood and why it was initially thought that one lane closures would be safe. After all, the width of the road hasn’t changed. Respectfully, Ned Young 41Bedford Road (thankfully not in the construction area ourselves) -- The LincolnTalk mailing list. To post, send mail to [email protected]. Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln.
