Southland Drive extension slowed by weather, still on schedule

Southland Drive extension slowed by weather, still on schedule

City engineer: ‘ We’ve gotten rain just at the wrong time’

news@theeveningtimes.com

Discussions on the construction of the Southland Drive extension were kicked around in two separate forums this week. A path of ripped ground between the curve on 7th Street, north of Interstate 40 and running east to Ingram Boulevard, has laid at a practical standstill since an initially flurry of work in the late spring.

The east end of the new road will run just north of the dog track at Southland Park Gaming and Racing, creating a northern connector from Southland Drive to 7th Street.

Both West Memphis Metropolitan Study Director Eddie Brawley and City Engineer Phillip Sorrell indicated unseasonably wet weather dampened progress after a fast start to the project. But hopes for a fall finish for the road build remain on the timeline despite being bogged down for a period.

Brawley addressed the quarterly MPO citizens advisory committee about work being stuck in the mud.

“They are still working on soil stabilization,” said Brawley. “We talked about using lime in some of the worst spots. It really helps.

If you’ve ever seen it go down it just steams out.

We’ve gotten rain just at the wrong time, time after time.”

Sorrel linked the delay to a bad chain of weather events and logistics. Trucking equipment out when it’s too wet and then not having equipment standing by when it was dry compounded the problems with progress. The City Engineer explained at the August Public Works Committee meeting.

“We’ve had some setbacks with the weather and then the contractor pulling out because of the weather,” said Sorrell. “Then not being back when the weather is good has been a hit and miss thing on this project.”

The engineer had been on site with the contractor to get the Southland Drive back on the right path.

“We met on site with the contractor and engineer two weeks ago,” said Sorrell, “trying to figure the path forward to get the job back on underway.”

The wet ground reality sank in as city councilors heard Sorrell’s report.

“The frequency of the rain has really hurt us,” said Sorrell. “About the time it dries out and you try and do something with it, we got another inch of rain and that just sets you back.

“We can’t build the road on top of a wet and soft sub-grade,” continued Sorrell. “Our biggest problem is just trying to get up that unstable sub-grade. We all know these soils around here are not the best engineering material to build stuff with. So you have to have optimum moisture content and compacting to do that.”

The meeting produced a new way through the obstacles that had mired the wheels of progress. The contractor agreed to apply lime.

“We worked out a reasonable solution to use some lime stabilization to help us get up and out of that,” said Sorrell. “The contractor is back out there processing sub-grade this week. I’m hoping to see significant progress within the next two weeks. We just don’t

need anymore rain.”

By John Rech