Work almost done along Avenue B

It may seem like a newly paved stretch of road along Avenue B is being torn up again, but it's not - not exactly, say city and state officials.

"We're not going back in to fix anything. We've just got two political entities working in the same area at the same time and it gets confusing," said Paul Brooberg, the city of Yuma's deputy director of public works.

A $2.2 million city water line installation project on Avenue B from 32nd Street to 16th Street is almost finished. All that's left to be done is the intersection at 16th and Avenue B. That portion of the project began Wednesday and will last about a month. During that time, motorists' turning movements will be heavily restricted, officials said.

Brooberg said the city has successfully tested the water lines it installed under Avenue B and everything is working correctly.

When the intersection work at 16th Street is completed, motorists should notice the elimination of a steep dip, called a valley gutter, on the west side of the intersection. Brooberg said the city intends to extend the storm sewer about 100 feet west of the intersection, thereby eliminating the need for the pronounced dip.

The city started its water line work at 32nd Street last September and gradually worked its way towards 16th Street, Brooberg said. The city's work involved tearing up one lane of Avenue B so the water line could be installed. Once the water line was in, the city repaved the lane.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Department of Transportation was working on a $768,000 repaving project along the same stretch of Avenue B, said Bill Alfier, ADOT's district engineer in Yuma. For that work, it had to mill off the top 3.5 inches of pavement from Avenue B from 32nd Street to 17th Place and overlay it with new pavement.

The state's repaving work was five times as wide as the city's was, Brooberg said.

Now the state's repaving is complete, Alfier said. All that remains is to open and raise the manholes that were paved over during the state project. Motorists will notice some lane closures from "time to time" around the manhole work, Alfier said.

As for other roadwork around the city:

*Downtown streets are open with the exception of Madison Avenue, which is closed from Giss Parkway north to 3rd Street.

*Paving work on 24th Street from Arizona to Pacific avenues is now complete, although the south lane will be closed intermittently for grading work.

*Work continues on the I-8/Redondo Drive/Giss Parkway interchange. The interchange exit is closed so motorists should continue to use the 16th Street or 4th Avenue on and off ramps.

*Street reconstruction continues on 24th Street from the East Main Canal to Avenue B with one lane open in both directions.

*Water main and pavement work continues on 20th Avenue from 3rd to 5th streets. Lanes are restricted and drivers should use caution.

*Signal lights at Orange Avenue and at 12th Street on 4th Avenue will continue to flash yellow for a week or so longer until the signal lights are taken down entirely to speed the flow of traffic on 4th Avenue. Motorists

are reminded that a flashing yellow light means proceed with caution. Motorists should not come to a complete stop at the flashing yellow lights as some have been observed doing.

T.M. Shultz can be reached at tshultz@yumasun.com or 539-6852.