Published: November 23, 2009 08:12 am      

Lane changes

Construction crews logging time on Duncan street repairs

DUNCAN — Duncan has successfully completed a revenue bond project from 2007, capping it off with the finishing of 2nd street from Bois D’Arc to Main. Two weeks ago, the project was officially opened to traffic. It was changed from a two lane road into a three lane road with curb side streets. Public Works Director Scott Vaughn said since it’s been open, people have been trying to get used to the changes they’ve made, such as a turn lane for southbound traffic.

“Also, the exiting south bound lane is a right turn only at Bois d’Arc,” Vaughn said. “Some people catch it pretty quick, but it’ll take some getting used to.”

Vaughn did say that there are minor details yet to do, such as some road markings, finishing a few things on the road and signs to put in, but he thought the project came out pretty nice.

The project was a $10 million revenue bond that was approved in 2006, which included rebuilding Main street from Highway 81 to 27th Street, N Street from Willow to Chestnut, and then from Chestnut to Elk. It also included Duncan’s first regional detention pond. Vaughn said the detention pond came about during the flooding in 2007.

“Draining has always been a topic of discussion,” Vaughn said. “Our needs to fix it peaked during the major flooding in 2007.”

Vaughn said they were very exact on what the projects for the bond would consist of, most of which was due to drainage issues, but also chronic water main leaks were targeted and major streets with arterials and collectors were taken into account.

“Unfortunately we do have a large number of water mains that have chronic leaks,” Vaughn said. “So this was a pretty serious issue.”

Also, N Street had a serious drainage issue, and would consistently flood. Houses along N Street would chronically get water and localized flooding damage, so the plan included installing the regional detention pond to accommodate the flooding waters.

Now that the projects are all finished, Vaughn said that he is very pleased with the outcome of all of their hard work.

“Everything seems to be performing quite well,” Vaughn said. “The contractor did a good job, and the personnel did good too. They were very professional and I’m very please.”

Now, the main focus is the 10th Street project, which is currently in progress. Vaughn said that some people have already noticed they were doing something different to the road.

“People have noticed that we’re laying down a concrete street,” Vaughn said. “What they may not know is that the existing road was already concrete.”

Vaughn said that after years of patching and re-surfacing, the road was eventually covered in asphalt.

“This is actually a serious sign of deterioration on the road,” Vaughn said.

Some of the other reasons 10th Street is being totally re-done is to rebuild the storm sewers and to move the water mains from directly underneath the road to a more accessible spot. Normally, if a water main springs a leak, an entire section of the road has to be torn up to fix the leak. With most of the mains moved out of the middle of the road, only part of the road would have to be blocked off, and traffic could still flow freely.

“Someday they’ll spring a leak again, and this is going to make it much easier to work with,” Vaughn said. “We’re going to do it everywhere we can.”

Vaughn said they are working hard to get from Main to Beech open to traffic quickly, but due to weather issues, they’ve fallen a little behind. He is hoping to have it done by Christmas to allow easier travel up and down the busy road.

After the 10th Street project, another round of road improvements will start, mostly consisting of doing overlay (patching and asphalting) to roads in need and some re-striping on some roads as well. Also, Vaughn said they will soon start rebuilding Country Club Road from Plato to Camelback, and turn it into a three lane road, and Camelback will get a new overlay applied to it.

“We’re pretty busy, but it will make things easier for the future and will look a lot better too,” Vaughn said.