IA 44 Improvement Project – Notes from the Engineer

There were no rain delays this week!

On Monday August 23, Reilly continued grading on North James Street and later in the day was force to pull off the North James Street project until Qwest telephone lines are relocated.  These lines conflict with grading and paving and were to have been moved earlier. 

Qwest subcontractors have moved onto the site and relocated cables and will be rerouting service to these new cables next week.  The existing cables cannot be removed until all new cables have been put into service.
On Tuesday August 24, Reilly moved to backfilling new pavement between Maplewood Drive and the west end of the project.  Reilly also moved to rough grading for paving IA 44 widening between Maplewood and James Street and on S James Street.  CTI was on site Tuesday August 24 to place the west half of Brookside Drive intersection with IA 44.  On August 26, CTI poured 200’ of IA 44 to complete the pavement to the west line of Maplewood Street. On August 26 and 27 Reilly and CTI were working on fine grading sub base for paving.  Paving on IA 44 from Maplewood Drive to James Street is scheduled for Saturday August 28 and paving on S. James Street is scheduled for Sunday August 29.

ON SATURDAY AUGUST 28, 2010, IA 44 FROM MAPLEWOOD DRIVE TO EWING WILL BE CLOSED TO TRAFFIC WHILE CTI COMPLETES PAVING ON IA 44.  LOCAL AND THRU TRAFFIC WILL BE DIRECTED TO USE S. EWING STREET, S. 4TH STREET, S. JAMES STREET, KENNYBROOKE DRIVE AND MAPLEWOOD DRIVE AS A TEMPORARY DETOUR ROUTE.  THIS CLOSURE IS TO OCCUR FROM 5:00 AM TO 10:00 AM.  RESIDENTS ALONG THIS ROUTE ARE BEING ASKED TO NOT PARK ON THE STREET DURING THESE HOURS.

Electric conduit installation between SE Main Street and SE Little Beaver Drive is completed. Pulling wires into conduits is completed.  Par Electric is working on connecting electric wire into transformers and has completed some work on removing overhead electric lines.

Gas main construction activities along IA 44 and James Street are complete and the gas main has been filled and placed into service.

Traffic on S. James Street to and from west IA 44 is detoured through Kenny Brooke Subdivision and traffic on James Street to and from east IA 44 is detoured on S. Third Street and on S. Ewing Street.
 North James Street is closed to through traffic.  The detour for this closure  is North Ewing Street from IA 44 to NE 4th Street to N James Street and NW 3rd Street from N James Street to Calista Street thence south on Calista to IA 44.

The City of Grimes and Reilly are discussing what is reasonable to get constructed after James Street is opened to traffic.  The general consensus is that attempting to complete IA 44 from James Street to North Circle Drive will not be possible considering the time of the year. 

Work that will be completed this year will Stage II (IA 44 from James Street to west end of project) and IA 44 from James to Ewing, The work on IA 44 from James to Ewing will be done to facilitate installation of the traffic signal and decorative concrete sidewalk at the James Street intersection. Other areas that may be completed this construction season are N. and S. Main Street paving and utilities, N. Jacob Street paving and utilities and N. Harvey Street paving and utilities.

More information about project phasing and designated detour routes will be available on this web site through the duration of the project.   Should you have any questions or concerns about this project, please HWY 44 Project Engineer, Jerry Byg at 515-291-2241.  Note that Mr. Byg will be onsite for the duration of the project.  There is a project trailer located at Grimes City Hall.