The Portage Avenue underpass will remain open to one lane of traffic until further notice as the town decides what to do about removing steel sheet pilings from the west wall of the structure.
While the town announced last week that both lanes of traffic through the Portage Avenue underpass would be closed from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. yesterday through Friday so that 40-foot sheet pilings could be removed, Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown said late yesterday no decision has been made regarding whether the pilings should stay in or not.
“We’re not going to do it this week,” confirmed Brown, adding “a few days notice” will be given when, and if, the sheet pilings will be removed and the underpass needs to fully closed.
Without going into too much detail, Brown said engineers on the project have conflicting opinions whether the sheet pilings should be removed at all—and whether doing so could affect the “stability” of the underpass wall.
The underpass reconstruction work originally was scheduled to be completed by Nov. 1.
However, a lack of geo-technical information caused a delay in getting the project started this spring, and work didn’t commence until early August.
The project now is scheduled for completion in early fall of 2008. Work next year will include the reconstruction of the east wall and removal of the east sidewalk.
Work completed so far includes the temporary shoring design and west retaining wall.
While no decision has been made yet regarding the removal of the sheet piling, the town had hoped to have the underpass back open to two lanes sometime next week (Dec. 3-7).
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