Minor repairs required for part of Red River Road streetscaping

A section of Red River Road was closed Wednesday morning to allow for repairs to the recently completed streetscaping project.

Parts of the granite bands that stretch across the road between the pavers, representing Lake Superior’s historical water levels, have shifted since they were installed last fall.

During repairs, Red River Road was closed from Court Street to St. Paul Street.

Brian Newman, a city project engineer, said the granite bands went out of alignment because of the movement of sediment.

“They’re settling out oddly just because of some washouts, so the contractor is reinstalling them. There are only a few of them that need the attention, then after that, hopefully, they’ll survive down the road.”

Finely-crushed stone will be used to position the pieces requiring adjustment in their proper position.

Newman said, “It was like a trial, trying these out, and the bulk of them have reacted great… We just have to get in there and do some re-base work.”

Kara Pratt, executive director of the Waterfront District BIA, said the contractor gave assurances the repairs would be done as quickly as possible.

They were expected to be completed before the end of the day. – tbnewswatch.com

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Does the City of Thunder Bay require the testing of soil compaction on road construction projects? You dig a hole, fill it back in….how do you know that the material that was placed in the excavation was compacted to specifications?

The same goes for asphalt.  Is the asphalt compacted to proper specifications?  Does anyone test it?  If not compacted properly, you end up getting wheel rutting in spring as traffic finishes the compaction work.

If not, why not?  It can’t add that much to the cost of a project.