Half and Half Avenue

Crew members with Smoky Hill Construction were watching the sky Monday morning hoping the rain in the forecast would hold off – or not turn into a steady downpour in Downtown Salina.

Foreman Rick Augustine tells KSAL News that it would take heavy rains to slow their forward progress as they prepare to pour concrete on the west lane of Santa Fe Avenue, between Mulberry and Walnut.

“If it doesn’t rain too much we’ll be able to go with it, even if it sprinkles a little bit that will help us out.” According to Augustine, the heavy equipment and trucks used to lay down the 8-inch thick lane can operate in some pretty soggy conditions.

“It depends on how much we have and if the heavy trucks when they back in, if they don’t sink into rock we’ll be good to go.”

The Santa Fe Streetscape Project broke ground in April and is running simultaneously with work to replace the aging city waterline that runs under the pavement.

 

Salina Utilities Director Martha Tasker tells KSAL News that water crews are slightly ahead of the surface crews by using open cutting methods or boring into place to make the updates.

Tasker added they will get to the finish line together. “We’re kind of tied at the hip,” she said.

“We can work ahead of them on the watermain. But at the end of the day we can’t finish our water services until they remove the street and allow us to make those connections.”

Work on the Santa Fe Streetscape Project is expected to be completed in the Fall of 2019.