I think I was being inundated by questions about a variety of road projects around south Pinellas County, and I was endeavoring to get the drop on answers. Then somebody yelled, "Close the windows and duck!" And I did.
But now I've crawled out from under the dining room table, and I'm back on the pothole beat.
There are four major road construction/utility work projects around the city of St. Petersburg. If my mail is to be believed, they are driving people nuts. Here's what's going on, and a rough schedule for the end of your long highway nightmare. (Although never doubt that other nightmares will rise up to take the place of these.)
1. The Euclid St. Paul Drainage Project on 16th Street N south of 15th Avenue. This is, as you'd suspect from the title, a drainage project. It closed the northbound lane of 16th Street for several blocks for a while, but all lanes are back open now and beautifully repaved.
Some of the side streets still have a lot of dirt moved around and pipes sitting out in the open. But city officials say the project will be completed by November.
For the time being, it's just nice to have 16th Street back.
2. The Basin A Drainage Improvement Project. This is at Fifth Avenue and Fifth Street N and is the reason the interstate access there has been closed, a real pain. The project itself won't be completed until May 2005, but city officials assure us that the interstate access will reopen within the week.
Also good news.
3. The Northwest 3 Sanitary Sewer Project. This is the biggie that's been a headache in the Tyrone area seemingly forever.
If you recall, the original contractor abandoned the job. The caverns in the ground had to be closed up until a new contractor could be found to finish up, and that has happened. But an entire lane eastbound on 38th Avenue N and areas of 49th to 58th streets N have been all messed up.
This project, too, should be completed by November.
"Those people in that area have suffered through a lot with this," said Mike Connors, St. Petersburg's guru of all street stuff. "I'm very sensitive to their concerns. And I'll be as glad when it's done as they are."
4. And finally, the reclaimed water project at Gandy Boulevard and 16th Street N. Assuming no weather delays, this one should be done by next month.
I can hear a lot of you breathing sighs of relief.
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Steve Gordon asked us to check out the southbound lanes of Ridge Road where they come into Ulmerton Road. He said it appeared that the left turn lane and the left through lane had melted.
That's not far off an accurate description. It's something that happens to a lot of asphalt roads in Florida in the summer. The pavement gets a little soft under the unrelenting assault of the sun, and tires create all sorts of mischief.
I remember a case I wrote about not too long ago where heavy trucks turning south from Roosevelt Boulevard onto 28th Street N at Carillon had folded up the pavement the way a puppy can rake up a blanket.
The situation on Ridge Road in the two lanes Steve mentioned is that traffic has caused the pavement to rut, and braking action has caused it to ripple.
The good news is that if you're asleep when you drive through there, it will jolt you awake.
Steve gets the award for providing our Eyeball Jiggler of the Week.
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We had a request from a reader to check out the railroad crossing on Ulmerton just to the east of Ridge Road, so while we were in the neighborhood, we did.
That crossing, especially the westbound lanes, was a horror a year ago. But the roadies got in there and redid the paving that abuts the rails. The reader didn't think the job was good enough.
I concede that it isn't as smooth as if the owner, CSX, had come in and put down the black pads you see on some very smooth crossings. But it isn't terrible. There are little bounces as you cross the rails, nothing more than that.
There are tons of crossings in this county where drivers would pay money to have them as EJW-free as the one on Ulmerton.
* * *
And finally, as if we hadn't had enough EJWs, Judy Ellis pointed us to one in the northbound lanes of Eighth Street N approaching Third Avenue.
It appears to have been repaired countless times, but once again the asphalt has disappeared, and brick is showing through.
Judy thinks of it as a cauldron big enough to cook a chicken, but it isn't that bad. A Cornish hen, maybe.
Dr. Delay can be reached by e-mail at docdelay@sptimes.com by fax at 727 893-8675 or by snail mail at 490 First Ave. S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
