2008 Woodie Awards
Old roads get work done around BC campus
Joel R. Paramo
Issue date: 11/22/06 Section: News
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The road construction that is under way and nearly completed on Mount Vernon has caused noticeable changes in the availability of parking spaces as well as various traffic problems with the detours and lane closures. Despite the proximity, the school did not have any official say in the road work.
"The school didn't have a play in the decision of when the construction would be done," said Amber Chiang, BC director of marketing and public affairs. "The road construction was needed; the road was old."
The federally funded state project occurred at such a time for many reasons.
"Our original goal was to have construction scheduled to happen in June," said Arnold Ramming, Bakersfield's design technician. "But because of delays from the funding source, paper work was not filed for us to go into construction."
According to Ramming, there is a process that the city goes through to have roadwork completed every year and there's no way to delay projects once they've been approved.
"Because it's a federally funded project, if we were to delay the project it would have cost us thousands of dollars," said Rick Millwee, Bakersfield's construction supervisor. "We have paving seasons, it has to be warmer than 50 degrees to pave roads. Currently our windows are closing. It all depends on the weather." According to Milwee, there are only certain times that road construction such as the construction on Mount Vernon can occur. Sometimes they can begin paving as early as March or April and can end in November or December.
"For paving projects like this one, it's a very hot mix that they make a plant here in Bakersfield that they then have to ship to the location of construction," said Ramming. "If the mix is too cold by the time it reached the site it can't be used."
According to Ramming, not only does paper work have to be completed, but also once everything is ready to go, they have to award the contract to a contractor that will complete the project. They would also have to make sure that Milwee's department had sufficient staffing.
"The school didn't have a play in the decision of when the construction would be done," said Amber Chiang, BC director of marketing and public affairs. "The road construction was needed; the road was old."
The federally funded state project occurred at such a time for many reasons.
"Our original goal was to have construction scheduled to happen in June," said Arnold Ramming, Bakersfield's design technician. "But because of delays from the funding source, paper work was not filed for us to go into construction."
According to Ramming, there is a process that the city goes through to have roadwork completed every year and there's no way to delay projects once they've been approved.
"Because it's a federally funded project, if we were to delay the project it would have cost us thousands of dollars," said Rick Millwee, Bakersfield's construction supervisor. "We have paving seasons, it has to be warmer than 50 degrees to pave roads. Currently our windows are closing. It all depends on the weather." According to Milwee, there are only certain times that road construction such as the construction on Mount Vernon can occur. Sometimes they can begin paving as early as March or April and can end in November or December.
"For paving projects like this one, it's a very hot mix that they make a plant here in Bakersfield that they then have to ship to the location of construction," said Ramming. "If the mix is too cold by the time it reached the site it can't be used."
According to Ramming, not only does paper work have to be completed, but also once everything is ready to go, they have to award the contract to a contractor that will complete the project. They would also have to make sure that Milwee's department had sufficient staffing.
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