Athens motorists will continue to see construction crews and orange barrels as they travel along East State Street this week. The road's widening project is not expected to finish until the end of this month.
Assistant Service-Safety Director Ray Hazlett said Shelly and Sands of Zanesville, the project's general contractor, will not meet the Oct. 18 widening deadline.
The road's concrete barriers were replaced with barrels on Tuesday afternoon, but the final coat of asphalt still has to be applied on same lanes of the road, he said. Traffic signal wires have yet to be installed as well.
Four out of the street's five lanes of traffic will be open at the end of the month, Hazlett said. The fifth lane will remain closed while work is done on the adjacent sidewalk.
Athens Mayor Ric Abel said the contractors have asked for a time extension, and as a result, will face no penalty for failure to complete the project by the October deadline.
Hazlett said Oct. 18 was the date for substantial completion. Crews would still have the opportunity to go back after that date and make repairs the city requested.
He said he met with the construction supervisor, the project's manager and engineers in March, and at that time they all expected the widening to be completed by mid-July.
But Hazlett said between June and July the city only went 11 days without rain. Rain made the site too muddy to work.
Service-Safety Director Wayne Key said last August that rain and the weather made the project's completion date impossible to predict.
Even so, rainy days were built into the company's contract when they estimated the amount of time it would take to complete the widening project, Abel said.
City officials have now set a new completion date for the project. Now that asphalt has been laid, rain will not cause as much of a problem, Hazlett said.
Officials expect the entire East State project, including tree planting, to be completed before the end of November.
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Erica Bush
