Great Bend Street Department employees removed the bricks around the Broadway island at Harrison Street Tuesday afternoon as they prepared to tear the island out for the installation of a left-turn lane. That work starts today.
Starting at 8:30 this morning, the east-bound lane of Broadway will be closed from Harrison east about 250 feet, said Mike Crawford with the street department. The closure will not extend as far east as it did last Friday when the light pole at the intersection was removed.
Weather permitting, Crawford expected work to be done by Friday. This includes excavating the island, pouring the concrete and painting the lane striping.
The stretch of Broadway will only be closed from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. while crews are working, Crawford said. Otherwise, it will be open.
However, even though the street will be open, the island area will be blocked of for seven days until the concrete hardens. “The traffic can flow normally,” Crawford said.
After the island is removed, Crawford said they will dig out a foot of dirt from the site. They will dump in five inches of crushed concrete as a base and then pour seven inches of new concrete over that.
This is the normal procedure, he said. In some high-traffic areas where the ground is packed down, dirt can be used as a base. However, since the new turning lane is at a location that has never been driven over, the crushed concrete will give a more support.
Currently, Harrison has left-turn lanes on both sides of Broadway and there is a turn lane on Broadway on the west side of the intersection. After this is done, there will be on in all directions.