Infrastructure August: The Complexity of Simple Repaving
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
They're repaving Glenwood Avenue, leading to the Five Points intersection that defines my neighborhood, and it's been a wonderful lesson in just how freaking complex something that simple can be. I say "they" because most people don't know who usually does this. The street is actually a state highway and thus the responsibility of the state to repave, though the state has in recent years just paid the city to do it. Either way, of course, it's done by a contractor, hired by one entity or another. Anyhow, with current budget problems, the state can't afford to pay the city, so it undertakes such enterprises itself and commonly runs into surprises poking around streets it's been kind of offloading for years. Glenwood, for example, turns out to have trolley tracks beneath it, which complicates things marvelously, as evidenced by this fine post by Bruce Siceloff in the Raleigh News & Observer. More, as Siceloff noted, the concrete beneath the tracks was so old that they had to remove it and start all over. So a simple repavement job has stretched in time, in money, and in complexity. By the way -- and more on this as Infrastructure August continues -- those trolleys that we all love and that are making a comeback throughout the country? They sort of invented urban sprawl. Worth remembering. My favorite thing back on topic, though, is this paragraph from a news release put out by NCDOT, which speaks more eloquently about the interconnectedness of all infrastructure than anything I could say: RALEIGH – Work on Glenwood Avenue near the Five Points intersection is now expected to be completed by mid-September.
Crews expect to have all four lanes by open by late August. Then they will close one lane at a time to place the top layer of asphalt, paint lane lines and complete other final details.
Earlier plans had called for all the work to be completed by the end of August. This date has been pushed back because of unexpected delays due to infrastructure repairs and conflicts below the road.
Crews have to lower water and gas lines because the old 6-inch concrete road is being replaced by a 13-inch deep asphalt road. While tearing up the old road, crews also found that they had to repair and replace much of the storm drainage system, including an 800-foot section of pipe that runs from Harvey Street to the Rialto Theater.
Water lines; gas lines; storm drains. And only the fact that this part of Glenwood doesn't have buried cables or electric lines keeps it that simple. The release then goes on to discuss detours and delays in a passage that rivals the Dead Sea Scrolls or the two-line pass rules in hockey for clarity (I stole that joke from Mad Magazine). My only point here: it's just all so complex. Which is a great way to introduce the next topic: High-Speed Rail, and how people usually for such things become against such things when they show up in their own neighborhoods.
Posted by Scott Huler
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