Unexpected complications of the Rehabilitation of Monte Vista Avenue Project, funded by the City of Turlock, have pushed back the completion date and caused traffic jams.
Contractors originally planned for the grinding and paving operations to begin April 14 and end April 25.
“Both the contractor and city really wanted to get it done while you guys are on Spring Break,” Nathan Bray, project engineer, said.
“We knew it was going to be so much more of a hassle [for the students] trying to park out there.”
Bray explained that the city hires the contractor to do the work and the contractors schedule their own operations.
The city and contractor do not necessarily follow a set schedule. Instead they work closely together to develop the best time frame for each job.   The road grinding shifted to the Monday of Spring Break, per discretion of the contractor.
Paving was expected to take place the 23, 24 and 25 of April.
“We had to do some additional work prior to paving,” Bray said. “On the 23 we ground off the road and realized it wasn’t suitable to pave on.”
The nature of construction depends on uncontrollable variables, such as the rain and cool temperatures that paused paving activities last Friday.  Paving resumed on April 28 and was completed April 29.
“There will still be contractors out in the roadway until around the end of next week,” Bray said.
“But that should really just end the road work or the work that you see out there in the field.”
There will be minor touch-ups and clean -up work estimated until May 23. “The paving work is done and is going to free up a lot of room for parking spaces,” Bray said.
“There will still be lane restriction to some areas of parking that are closed, but a majority of the parking along Monte Vista should be open.”