Posted December 30, 2022
As I send this to you on Friday morning, I have some good news for you. By the end of the day, southbound Kolb Road should be open at Speedway.
To summarize the last few weeks, in the early morning of December 12, a 24 inch water main suffered a catastrophic break that damaged the road. Water service was fully restored to the immediate area within days, but this was a problem for businesses in the area.
The longer term trouble was that we had a road and water main that needed to be reconstructed. My staff and I have gotten questions about why this has taken so long. I live in the area too, so I understand the frustration.
This wasn’t just a simple resurfacing or pothole repair. We’ve all had those interrupt our daily drive, but we suffer the inconvenience for a couple of days but then it’s done. What had to be done here was a total rebuild of the road.
In most cases where a road needs to be rebuilt, the necessary work is not just to the asphalt, but to the substructure underneath. In fact, there was work done a block from my office a couple of years ago that ended up getting delayed for several days because there were problems with that substructure.
In this case, because the leak was below that substructure, there were troubles with both the substructure and the ground beneath that. Work had to be done ten feet below what should have been the surface of the road. That’s far more than we would expect in any regular rebuild.
What you will see throughout the day is lanes reopening on the southbound section of Kolb north of Speedway. I ask for one more day of patience for southbound Kolb motorists.
I’d like to thank our crews from Tucson Water and its contractor Hunter Contracting, Co. for getting service restored so quickly. I’d also like to thank our Department of Transportation and Mobility. We had people working day and night over the holiday to get this done. Thank you to all of you.
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This is my last newsletter of the year, so I’d like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2023. It’s been a tough couple of years, but we have made it through. I wish all the best for you and your families for the next twelve months.