For everyone complaining about the heat, you need to know this is perfect road building weather. It's also supposed to be hot for a while but not hot enough to not vote next Tuesday so in case you missed my primary post this week, you can catch it here.
What a difference a bidding process and contractor make. The reconstruction of Waukomis near Line Creek Elementary bid the same month as the North Green Hills Road improvements. What's really cool about this job is that the contractor, Radmacher Brothers, innovated out of necessity. The design called for some large concrete arches for the two branches of Line Creek. These concrete arches are usually built off site from far away and then trucked to the job site. However, it's my understanding that the concrete arch makers were super busy so Radmacher decided to build their own arches on the job site. If this works for them financially, it's a great way to save money and expedite construction and hopefully takes off in the local market.
They had to pour a flat concrete slab to put the forms together. I had taken some pictures of the larger forms set up but can't find them but the green metal in the picture below are parts of the forms that they bolt together, place reinforcing steel bars inside of it, then pour concrete around it.
This is a picture of a finished one. I don't remember the dimensions exactly but this has to be around the seventy feet length.
Now these things have to sit on a foundation and the point load from the edge of the arch has to be distributed over a flat concrete slab. Concrete doesn't do well when it's stressed with tension (getting pulled apart). It's great when it's in compression (getting squished). The way concrete gets its tensile strength is steel reinforcing bars. Now I'm not 100% sure if the picture below is for the footing for the arches or maybe the reinforcing steel they need for a poured retaining wall but either way here is the web of rebar the contractor had to build in order to make sure the concrete does what it's supposed to do.
So the south two thirds of the project is complete. They are working on the north third and here is the footing for one side of the arches underway.
Now I need to do a post just about the old Kansas City to St. Joseph Interurban concrete arches that were built in 1910ish but they have the arch exposed and ready to demolish.
They've got most of the dirt in place for the roadway improvements and the storm boxes. This is looking south towards the entrance to Line Creek Community Center.
The project includes a "oval" roundabout that ties NW 62nd Street (entrance to Clayton Meadows) and the entrance the the Line Creek Community Center and Kansas City Northern Railroad. I didn't see a powerpoint on the ordinance on the clerk.kcmo.gov website but I did have a copy of the aerial map that was used for the public hearing back in 2016. Keep in mind this project got a federal grant in 2014 and ten years later it's finally under construction. The final project probably changed but this gives you an idea of the improvements. North is to the right
The roundabout requires some retaining wall and I went through the site in the end of June and the blocks had just been delivered. By the end of July, they had the walls built. This is looking southeast at the retaining wall along the east side of the roundabout and between NW 62nd Street and the Clay-Platte Montessori School
Now south of the roundabout the project is done. For those of you from the north who only take the road to get to the Price Rite Market and turn around, following are some pictures of the finished product. By the way, I you haven't gotten anything at Price Rite, you should. All the food is awesome. I'd start with the biscuits and gravy then grab a sandwhich for lunch, then finish it off with one of their take and bake pastas. Oh, I guess I'm hungry and off topic so back to construction. If you live north and haven't seen the finished project, it's a great parkway. The narrow culvert crossing which if you drove off of would result in instant death in front of the school is gone (it was something else biking across it in the morning with school traffic). It has sidewalk and a trail on the east side so kids can walk to school. This is looking south at the new crossing. Line Creek Elementary is on the left.
The project did some stream bank stabilization and so now the baseball fields at Vaydik Park aren't in danger of washing away or anyone getting hurt going over the fence to get a ball. This is looking west at the bank stabilization from the north entrance to the school. This had to be done to protect the new arch culvert and the road from falling into the creek in the future.
This is looking north from the school bus entrance towards the community center. So much nicer than the old death trap culvert.
The school now has a nice ten foot wide sidepath trail for kids to safely get to school and for everyone on the east side of the street to safely get to the Line Creek Trail. This is looking south from the bus entrance. The school is on the left.
The project also includes a dedicated cross walk to get to the Vaydik Park soccer and baseball fields and also for anyone in the Englewood Apartments to safely walk to school. This is looking west from NW 56th Terrace.
This project was funded with a $5M federal grant that some of you back in 2014 were nice enough to send support letters and emails to help get the grant. The rest of the construction money is coming from Platte County's road sales tax even though Kansas City is managing the project. If you would like to see the improvements continue south of Englewood all the way to Vivion so people can access the Vivion Road and Interurban Trails, you can easily put your name to the online petition I created to help with a Platte County grant that's recently been submitted. All you need to do is go here and it would be greatly appreciated.
Also Tuesday is election day and it's a big day to vote to show that you back the blue and as always I'm always more than happy to share my recommendations for Governor, Lt. Governor (Go Holly!) and the rest who I think would do a good job leading the state of Missouri. Now since it's Saturday morning, I'm heading out to get some Price Rite biscuits and gravy.
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