Story Published: Mar 30, 2009 at 4:56 PM PST
Richland's reputation needed some repairs. Drawn out projects in recent years had drivers revved up. Businesses on George Washington Way said construction cost them sales. It was the same argument for folks along Gage Blvd the year after that. Road repairs took longer than expected, but the third time is the charm.
"The city has learned and done things differently shorten time and less effect," said Richland Civil Engineer Jack Arnold.
This is the last week Leslie road will close, that's a week earlier than expected. The reason is because of a new approach. The city letting contractors do more work all at once and contractors are bringing in more manpower.
"The contractor has a lot of people working. We've got four different crews working at one time. Especially time of poor economy it's a really good thing for everybody," said Arnold.
You can already see the progress being made on the South end of Leslie. What used to be a very narrow road is now much wider. It use to be only a single lane, now it will be three lanes.
"They're getting in long hours. They start at 6am at finish at six at night and you'll see them for a good chunk of the day. That's probably how they're ahead of schedule," said David White.
White lives along Leslie. He admits the dust has been annoying and some drivers still drive too fast on the gravel, but all in all, he's happy with the work.
"They're bending over backwards to get it done."
After this week, closures and detours are done but give it another couple weeks to get paved. A rough road is still better than a closed one.
This is a major project for the city one that will keep going for a while.
The city expects this phase of the roadwork to be all done by mid-summer. Another phase starts next year.
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