In April 2005, the City of Wichita began the construction of the Central Rail Corridor Grade Separation Project in downtown Wichita. This project will result in new grade separations along the BNSF Railroad right-of-way at 13th Street, Murdock, and Central, and new grade separation bridges at 1st and 2nd Streets. The total cost of this project is $98 Million dollars, made up of a combination of federal, state, local, and railroad funds.
As of this date, the project is about 40% complete with 37% of the construct time used. All piling for the initial phase of the bridge construction is completed with bridge abutments constructed at 13th Street, Murdock, and Central. Abutment work continues at 1st and 2nd Streets. Bridge beams for 13th Street are to be installed next weekend. As a part of this project, the Douglas Street Bridge is being rehabilitated, and this work is about 30% completed.
The project also includes T-Wall retaining walls on both the east and west sides of the rail right-of-way to allow elevation of the rails between the bridges. The west side wall is currently under construction and is about 65% complete, with 2700 out of 4,000 panels placed. During the placement of the upper row of panels, some rust was detected on the back face of some of the panels. Further investigation found that the rust was caused by insufficient concrete cover over some of the reinforcing steel. For this reason, these wall panels have been rejected by the City and will be removed from the project. New upper row wall panels will be fabricated by the supplier and placed by the contractor.
Because of the problems with the upper panels, the City, its engineers, and the railroad are examining all of the other wall sections as well. At this point, all retaining wall work has been stopped until our investigations are complete. If additional concerns are found, it will be up to the contractor to correct them at no cost to the City.
The construction of this project should be completed in the fall of 2008.
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