Updated: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Photo: Wednesday, November 18, 2008
Work has begun on rebuilding Airport Road with the hope that the $24 million project will be completed by the end of 2009.
This project will include widening Airport Road to four lanes, rebuilding intersections at opposite ends of the road and a new roundabout at the North 27th Street intersection, as well as a new roundabout near the airport and Airport Road. Pedestrian tunnels will be built beneath Alkali Creek and Airport Roads.
Riverside Contracting out of Missoula, the company awarded the contract for this project, is setting up a website for this project. Feel free to access this website at http://www.airportroad.org/.
*Within the next few days, weather permitting, the new lanes on the south side of Airport Road will be striped and ready for traffic. Both lanes of traffic with then be moved onto the two new lanes between Edwards Jet Center and the high-tension power lines at the east end.
Absolutely NO LOADS OVER 12-FEET will be permitted on Airport Road between 27th Street and Main Street.
After traffic is moved onto the new lanes, a new connection to Rimtop Drive will be cut in. Note from the photo that the new lanes are approximately 4-feet below the current lanes of Airport Road.
The new approach will be cut in one lane at a time, beginning with the right hand lane into the business park. There will be one lane traffic in and out of the business park, with traffic controlled with flag persons. Traffic going to and from the business park will be required to use the old Airport Road traffic lanes between 27th Street and Rimtop Drive during construction.
THERE WILL BE NO ACCESS FROM THE EAST (Main Street) TO RIMTOP DRIVE WHILE THIS WORK IS BEING PERFORMED.*