Motor on through: National now open

Thursday, March 10, 2011
Local motorists drive on the new asphalt on National Avenue. The 700 block of National Avenue was reopened Tuesday afternoon after being closed for nearly six months for repairs to storm drain infrastructure and a retaining wall on the east side of the road. (Michael Pommier/Tribune)

After six months of closure, National Avenue is open for good.

Fort Scott Public Works Director Eric Bailey said the contractor, Rogers & Sons Concrete of Fort Scott, got one of the city's busiest streets traffic-ready Tuesday afternoon. It had been closed for storm drainage repairs since October 2010.

Rogers & Sons was contracted to complete the project, which consisted of replacing a partially collapsed "hand laid rock box" on the west side of the road with a new pipe, replacing the drainage pipe that runs beneath National Avenue, and repairing the retaining wall on the east side of the road that had collapsed.

The company bid $243,989 on the project, well under the engineer's estimate of $455,000.

While some local residents were unhappy with the road being closed just two days after it was briefly opened in late January, Bailey said the closure and delay in reopening the street was not the fault of the contractor. It came about because the contractor couldn't obtain asphalt to finish putting the street back together.

"This time of year is not asphalt producing weather," Bailey said.

The weather played a significant role in re-opening the street as well, Bailey said. He said the cost is too high for "batch plants" to operate unless there is a strong demand for asphalt to offset their expense. In addition, asphalt plants store the materials outdoors, forcing them to wait until the materials dry before producing asphalt. With 18 inches of snow -- or more in some places -- February was a rough time to obtain the surface.

Knowing it's harder to get asphalt in the winter, Bailey said the weather was considered before starting the project.

"If you have good weather, then you have batch plants that are up and producing asphalt," Bailey said.

With National Avenue opened, the contractor can finish the project's final steps including smoothing out the dirt on either side of the road and reseeding for grass to grow. Bailey said once the ground dries out from the recent rain, dirtwork will begin. Despite the weather delays, he said, the contractor was still within the time frame for completing the project as specified under its agreement with the city. Bailey added the asphalt that has been laid is sufficient to last until the city resurfaces National Avenue from Sixth to 13th streets in 2012 or 2013.