Finish line in sight on road work

The finish line is near on U.S. 54 road work from Iola to LaHarpe.
Brian Haar, a Kansas Department of Transportation engineer overseeing the highway’s reconstruction, said work remains largely on schedule.
The multi-faceted project included a full rebuild from the ground up of the four-lane, concrete thoroughfare.
“We’re looking pretty good on time,” Haar said.
The deadline for Koss Construction, Topeka, to finish the roadwork is Oct. 31, with all other cleanup finished by Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving.
All of the lanes have been poured in both directions, Haar said.
The primary focus this week is completing the curbs, gutters and inlets on the north side of the westbound lanes.
Meanwhile, crews are grinding down the surface of the new westbound lanes over the weekend. Once complete, work will focus on grinding down the eastbound lanes as well.
The other major piece of the puzzle also is nearing completion. Crews have meticulously chipped away the “dead” or bad concrete on the final two lanes of the Rock Creek bridge. That surface is ready for a final layer of a special silica fume concrete, designed for extra durability.
When the primary work is complete, crews will work on spot repairs at various points along the 5.4-mile project.
Haar responded to concerns from the LaHarpe City Council about uneven curbs and approaches there.
“Those all are being repaired,” he said. “Sometimes people think if there’s no work going on in an area that we’ve forgotten about it, but it will be fixed. There’s another spot that holds water near Central Publishing in Iola that we’re going to redo as well.”
Traffic is reduced to 35 mph near the Rock Creek bridge to Iola, and 45 mph for the rest of the construction zone.
Weather, while unpredictable, has not posed too many obstacles, Haar said.
“This summer has had a few more rainy days than normal, but it’s been fairly mild,” Haar said. “Of course, we may be paying for that this week” with forecasts in the upper 90s to near 100 by Saturday.
The $10.7 million project began last summer.