Rain a real pain for some road work

Drip, drip, drip.

Last week's rains had various effects on construction projects around here.

Kirk and Route 38

"We have been pretty fortunate on the K-38 project in regards to rain. We have lost a day here and there, but as we are not doing earthwork, we can recover pretty fast," said Dave Boesch, county construction chief, via e-mail.

Crews managed to stay on schedule.

Materials being used are either not affected by rain or are protected in trailers. Moving equipment is on hard pavement, as opposed to mud, so there isn't much difficulty there.

This week, concrete paving work will continue on the northeast corner of the intersection. Traffic will be reduced to one through land and one left turn lane on all four legs.

Southbound Kirk also will have a devoted right turn lane to westbound Route 38.

The contractor will begin installing the raised median on the north leg of Kirk, and complete curb and gutter work on the southwest corner. If weather permits, they will install traffic signal foundations on the south side of Route 38.

And again: They ask that we use caution while traveling through the intersection and to stop at the stop bars so trucks can easily maneuver through the intersection.

Kirk and Route 56

The county will start work on that intersection-widening project after Labor Day, doing utility work and pavement widening for the next few months until it shuts the project down for winter in late November or early December. It is set for completion in September 2008.

Batavia bridge

The Wilson Street bridge will be completely shut down from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday to pour the sidewalk for the south half of the bridge.

You can blame the shutdown on all the rain. Normally, at least some of the pouring equipment would have been in the river in the area that is dammed off, but the current is too high and swift for that. So the equipment will be on the north half of the bridge instead.

St. Charles

On First Street, city crews had to contend with rainwater pouring into trenches behind Main Street businesses, delaying utility work in the area at least a day.

On Main Street, curb and gutter replacement was delayed by the rain, so work will continue this week. There may be intermittent lane closures from Fifth Avenue to Sixth Street.