Lights & Sidewalks on B Avenue:

We should have the North side of B Avenue sidewalks completed in the next few hours. As well we are installing lighting on it as well as the concrete strength permits. This afternoon we'll be starting the 2' banding on the South side between those businesses that have purchased "heated sidewalks". The goal is to pour the same areas on Thursday with sidewalks. From that point we'll be pouring the remaining bump outs on B and 4th and the last one on B and 5th.

You'll notice that we are removing some concrete in the street on B Avenue around the intake grates. This is due to what they call a "Birdbath" effect where water pools. While this is not uncommon it does need to be fixed and we're trying to handle it now as opposed to next spring.

Sidewalks & Bump Outs:

We had a very good week with getting 5th street sidewalks poured and opened up. This week we are going to work towards getting some of the bump outs completed and getting the North side of B Avenue ready for banding and sidewalks. As well on Sunday we had LL Pelling in town to stripe the majority of the downtown. We'll be completing the East side of B Avenue beginning at 10:00 Monday.

• Bump outs on 5th Street will be completed.
• Pouring of the intersection of 4th and B Avenue will be completed with the goal of having it opened up and ready for traffic on Friday
  
• Installation of remainder of street lights on 5th Street.
• Removal of sidewalks on the North side of B Avenue.
• We are working on getting our first round of quilt blocks in early next week with the hopes of starting the installation process.

Thanks again for everyone's patience and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Ryan

Sidewalk Pouring & 5th & Hwy 22:

We'll begin pouring of the stamped and colored sidewalks today at 10:00. The delays that we've seen have been 100% due to the high winds. The process as you'll see is that the colored concrete is poured and a powdered release agent is thrown on it to give it the desired look, from that point the concrete banding is stamped. This release agent is in essence black and with the high winds would have been difficult not only to apply but to keep the businesses clean.

Today we are starting the removal of the downtown gateway entrance signs on 5th street and Highway 22. The removal will be done on both the North and South sides of 22 and will be projected to be poured back on Monday, November 1st. The pouring will be done in "M" mix which will allow for the street to be opened up 24 hours after pouring.

Sidewalk Removal:

Well the removal of sidewalks has begun on 5th Street. The goal is to have gravel base replace the sidewalk immediately so that the surface can still be utilized by the public. We are looking to begin framing up of the 2' banding as early as Friday with the goal to have the pouring crew in on Monday to start.

The process will be that we'll pour the stamped banding and as soon as cured and cleaned come back in and pour the standard concrete up to the building. As with any old community we've run into some structural issues but have been working through those as they arise.

Again any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Ryan

Colored Crosswalks & 5th & B Avenue:

The pouring of the colored crosswalks will continue on Tuesday with the goal of having them completed by Wednesday morning. This will include all the crosswalks on 5th street.

Our goal for the remainder of this week is to hand over the main intersection of 5th and B Avenue over to All American on Wednesday so that we can begin to frame up the quilt design and crosswalks with the goal of pouring late this week. This area is critical to get completed so that we can open up both 5th and B Avenue to regular traffic. To increase the timing of the pouring we are working with All American about the possibility of bringing in a pumper truck to pour the entire intersection at once. This will speed up the process and make it available for use quicker.

Once the main intersection is completed we'll be looking at sidewalk removal and replacement as well as the completion of the intersection at 4th and B Avenue. Optimistically I feel that we can be working on sidewalks next week. We are working with All American to come up with the most effective starting point to begin with sidewalks. As we have all discussed we'll be communicating with businesses prior to the removal and replacement of their sidewalk. As well that will be the appropriate time to utilize the Alley entrances for those that are able. Again if you have specific needs please communicate them to me and we'll take them into consideration.

Thanks again for everyone's support!

5th Street & Construction Update

We are going to start heading North on 5th street. This will include saw cutting and removal of sidewalks on Monday and the removal of the street later in the week. The plan is to remove immediately the areas up to the intersection and get it put back into place before jumping to the other side.

Along with the removal of streets on 5th the electricians will be moving to the East side of B Avenue to complete the wiring and light pole bases. As well All American will be working on starting the new sidewalks / plaza areas on the West end of B Avenue. Late last week the storm sewer infrastructure was completed by Maxwell Construction. We'll have Maxwell back to install storm sewer inlets in the curbs and once the streets are poured they will install the street inlets.

I hope everyone had a great Fall Festival weekend. And let me know if you have any questions.

B Avenue & Fall Festival Update:

On Tuesday the concrete paving was finished on the East side of B Avenue. Our goal is that on Monday of next week the East side will meet the proper break strength so that we can finish up the two storm water inlets.

Our goal is to be able to have all of B Avenue opened up for traffic by the opening of the Fall Festival. As well we are going to look to fill in the areas between the streets and sidewalks with compacted back fill materials so that there will be a safe walkway from the street to the sidewalk.

Next week we'll also be focused on the cleaning up of the entry way's to the sidewalks as well as the alley approaches. All American and the City in cooperation with the Kalona Fire Dept. to make sure the streets and sidewalks are cleaned prior to the Fall Festival.

Thanks!

Unfounded Rumor on Parking:

I just want to negate a rumor that was just brought to my attention today. The comment was that the city of Kalona was going to prohibit truck parking on both B Avenue and 5th. This is again completely an unfounded rumor.

Any questions please don't hesitate to call.

Water Shut Off:

We have had to shut down the water on B Avenue beginning at 2:30. The shut down was unexpected and should last 60 - 90 minutes.

B Avenue & 5th Street:

The goal today is to complete the storm sewer from the corner of Hills Bank / General Store South to A Place. While the street is currently closed it will be replaced and put back temporarily for use again on Wednesday.

All American is planning on starting both street removal on B from 4th to 5th along with a 3' sidewalk removal on the North and South side of the street. The sidewalk removal will allow us the opportunity to have the electrician and irrigation company work on getting their lines run.

Removal of street on B Avenue:

On Tuesday we'll begin the street removal on B avenue. As well we are going to have to take our all the benches between 4th and 5th on B avenue. We'll be taking the chambers benches down to the chamber building and replacing the ones currently there. The remainder will be stored at the public works building. The purpose of removing the benches is to allow for the removal of 2' section of sidewalk for the installation of both irrigation and electrical. The sidewalks will remain open for traffic but will just be a little bit narrower.

Thanks!

B Avenue Closed:

As many of you can see B Avenue has been shut down as we continue the storm sewer East as well as complete out inlet's to the North.

I'll be meeting with All American on Thursday to go over out "punch list" of items for completion as well as getting a new project time line from them. As you all know we are behind on the original schedule so we are in the process of putting together a revised schedule to be published.

One of the big punch list items that we'll be working through with All American is finishing up both 4th and 6th streets and getting the alleys 100% completed and cleaned up for use by owners.

Any questions please don't hesitate to let me know.

Thanks
Ryan

Quilt Block Plaques:
We have our initial sample for the bronze plaques that will recognize all of the 42 quilts that will be positioned throughout the downtown. These were hand made by Max Cast.

The plaques measure 6' x 11 3/4' and will be positioned in the banding that border the individual quilts.

For those of you that have committed to a quilt we'll be going around with invoices early next week along with forms to confirm the verbiage that you'd like on each of the plaques.

Alley Progress:
We have completed the main pour on the West alley and have begun the pouring of the East alley. Needless to say with the rains and the volume in the past week the contractors are somewhat gun shy in planning the major pours we are doing. The weather has really cooperated on the days we've poured and the crews have done a great job in the amount of cement they have put down.

The question that everyone is asking is how soon can we access the West alley. On Monday morning we'll be having Terracon do the concrete breaks to test the strength. Once the concrete passes the 4,500 psi we'll be able to open it up for All American to finish the pouring against the buildings and the entrance ways. Once that pour is complete we'll need 24 hours for curing and then we'll open it up for the public to utilize.

As far as the East alley the time frame is roughly a day behind. We won't get the breaks till Tuesday and from that point we'll work on the remaining pour and open up 24 hours later.

The goal on Friday is that we work on 6th street to get that poured and put back in a more permenant manner. We'll be doing the same for 4th street early next week.

Alley Work:

Final grading on the West alley should be completed late Friday or early Saturday. The goal is that we start pouring on Monday with the goal of the concrete being completed on Tuesday or Wednesday. From that point we'll have a 4-5 day cure time prior to allowing ANY vehicles other than All Americans on it.
The East alley is being staked in preparation for final grading to be started on Friday or Monday. The goal for the East alley would be that they could pour it mid to late next week.

Sample Banner Sign: I'll be bringing down a full scale mock up of the proposed "welcome to downtown Kalona banner signs to the Chamber Lunch on Monday for everyone to see. As well I hope to have the mock up of the bronze recognition plaques that will go with the quilt blocks.

4th Street: On Thursday Maxwell construction completed the installation of the 24" pipe South to B Avenue. Friday they will pour the floor of the new drop box with the remainder of the walls to be poured on Monday.

B Avenue: With the installation of the storm sewer in both the alleys and 4th street coming to an end we will be looking at bringing in the same Maxwell crew to tie into the B avenue storm sewer again at the corner of the General Store and complete it East to the Chamber building. This is ahead of the proposed time frame so the hope is that we can regain some of the "rain" days back where all we could do is lay storm sewer pipe.

A Place: Final grading is being completed early next week when All American is back into town. As well FSB had some work done to the West side of their entrance and it will be back filled at the same time.

Community Center: This week we've been able to get the bulk of the irrigation pulled and in place. The goal for the remainder of this week is to get the distribution box installed on the West side of the community center. Once this is in place we can complete the final pouring of the sidewalk. As well the City will be looking to start our portion of the landscaping around the community center. The plant materials and look will fall in line with what the architects / engineers are using around town as well.

Gateway Entrances / Kalona Signs: The corners of B and Hwy 1 as well as Hwy 22 & 5th have all been saw cut in anticipation of removal in the upcoming weeks. Again the two gateway entrances will incorporate all of the downtown elements (stamped / colored concrete, plant materials, walk ways). The prefabricated signage for the 4 entrance signs have been completed and we are in the process of staking the 4 "welcome" locations. The goal is that we can start working these into the schedule.

Continuing to work in the alleys:

We are hoping to get through the alleys so that we can begin pouring some concrete late this week or early next. I say this when it is pouring down rain so my guess is that we'll be off a day.

Monday: Staking of the West alley in preparation for final grade.
Tuesday - Thursday: Grading of the West alley in preparation of concrete.
Friday - Early next week: Pouring of the West alley. Once concrete is poured we'll need 3-4 days with no traffic on them before we open them up to the public.

On Monday the Downtown Committee is meeting to discuss stained and stamped concrete samples. The hope is that we can come to agreement on the samples so that we can give All American the go ahead on the gateway's into the downtown. {22&5th along with 1&B ave}.

Community Center Parking Lot / Alleys

We are progressing nicely in the West alley and should have all of the storm sewer installed by the end of the week. After it is installed the alley will be cut to grade and paving will follow.

On Tuesday we did run into an issue that needs to be resolved and will require us to tear out some extremely old storm sewer on 4th street. The area in question is between the alley and the Family Day Spa, running along the West side of the street. We'll be rearing up roughly 8' of the street and installing new storm sewer along with a new storm sewer box that had a gas line running through it (picture). What we found was not adequate for numerous reasons and it just makes sense at this time to replace.

Community Center Parking Lot: We have had the fill installed in the lot and we'll be running the street sweeper over it in a few hours. At this time we've taken down all the closure signs so people can start to utilize it for daily parking. Once the lighting gets in we'll work on closing sections down as needed.

6th Street Closure on Friday: Mid morning on Friday we'll be closing 6th street just East of the alley (near Gambles). We'll be making the last of our connections to the water service that runs North and South on 6th. This will be done "live" so we are not anticipating any service outages.

West Alley Closing

On Monday and Tuesday we'll begin the process of shutting down the west alley between 4th & 5th street. Once the alley is shut down the storm sewer will be installed and the grading and removal of surface materials will follow the sewer install.

Community center parking lot will receive back fill in the tree & landscaping areas. Once the back fill is completed we can begin to open up the parking lot for parking. Late last week we poured concrete samples for both the "colored" and "stamped" ares. The samples are located near the flag pole at the fire station as well as in front of the old library entrance.

Early this morning the final water hook up should happen at the East end of the alley at Gambles and 1st class apparel. Thanks for the patience that everyone has extended us!

Water Shut Off on Friday the 9th:

On Friday the 9th at 9:00 we'll be moving the water services from the old main to the new line. Should everything go well we should have everything moved over to the new line by 11:00.

Once the lines have been moved over we'll be going business to business in the downtown to confirm that you have water service. As you can imagine with a system this old there are multiple lines and splices that we can "assume" are connected to a specific location but until we check we are not always 100% confident.

This shut off will only affect those business with service connections in the alleys between 4th & 6th.

B Avenue Clean Up / Gravel

On Wednesday, All American will be bringing in gravel to put into the storm sewer trench. The delay as you can see is caused due to the condition of the road right now.

Maxwell Construction will be continuing to work on services in the alley's. As you can imagine we are seeing quite a bit of services within the alley way and it is causing some delays in getting services cut over.

Weekend Work

All American will be working on the parking lot on Saturday. Pouring of the walks on the South end and getting everything graded and cleaned up.

Maxwell Construction will be working in the alley's on both Saturday and Monday. They will be cutting in services.

Have a great weekend!

Community Center: There is quite a bit of work on the community center lot today. We'll be pouring the South walk way and sidewalk that will extend just past the old library entrance. As well the parking lot will be cleaned today. We brought in LL Pelling to do the asphalt overlay on the Northeast corner of the lot.

Alley's: A large portion of Wednesday and Thursday has been put into getting the Library prepared for the tie into the new line. The tie in for the library will be early Friday morning so that they will be back up and running in time for the 1:00 opening.
As well Maxwell is installing a new hydrant at the corner of the Tuscan Moon / Bakery.

Cleaning: All American will be cleaning up all work areas both today and tomorrow before leaving town for the holiday weekend.

**** Cleaning of B Avenue****
On Thursday morning All American will be cleaning up the dirt on B Avenue.

Community Center: Thursday we'll be pouring the sidewalk along the West side of the building as well as the sidewalk extending in front of the old library entrance. As well we are hoping to pour our colored / stamped samples for review and approval.

Downtown Revitalization Committee Meeting: On Tuesday evening the Downtown Revitalization Committee met to discuss the project. Some of the items that were discussed were the stamping of the 2' border along the sidewalks as well as the bump outs.
2' border: The plan is to have the border be both colored and stamped with the brick pattern for the entire downtown project.
Plaza (Bump-Outs): The plaza areas are now going to consist of a colored "hand tooled" pattern and not the 2'x2' slate stamping.

Alley's: Work is continuing in the alleys on the East end as they are working on getting the Library moved over to the new service.

Work will continue today at multiple locations.
A Place: The final pour on the West end nearest the ditch will be completed today. As well the approaches / drives have been poured to those residents and businesses along A Place.

4th Street: We should have back our initial compaction test today from Terracon and will evaluate the strength. As well the pouring of both sidewalks and driveway approach for FSB on the West side will be poured today.

B Avenue: With the delivery of more pipe it will allow the crew on B to get to the stop sign on the corner of 5th & B by the end of Tuesday or early on Wednesday.

Community Center Parking Lot: The curbing and sidewalk at the Fire station is being framed and should be poured on Tuesday / Wednesday of this week. We ran into one small issue on the West side of the community center that is delaying us in the final pouring of roughly a 10' x 10' section. We are working with Alliant to get a line shut off so that we can complete the final pour on the West side.

Alley's: The plan right now is to continue with the relocation of the hydrant nearest the Tuscan Moon and Bakery. As well as the relocation of the hydrant the line is being pressure tested so that we can start the installation of new service lines.

Downtown Revitalization Committee Meeting: Tonight at 5:30 the committee will be meeting to discuss funding and possible deductions for the project.

Monday, June 28th:

Sun is shining and it looks to be the start of a great week. With the end of phase 1 fast approaching it is apparent that we have fallen behind due to weather and will have to go past this Wednesday in order to complete phase 1.

Phase 1 -
A Place: Right now we are 90+% completed on A Place. Final grading and pouring of the entrances and area West nearest the creek are all that is to be completed.
4th Street: Pouring has been completed and we should have our strength test back from Terracon later this week and will look at opening it up at that point.
Alley's: The boring of the water main has been completed and this week we'll look to ensure that the chlorination is correct and then start the tapping of service lines. The tapping of the lines will start at the West end at Grandma's Corner shop. The goal would be to accomplish 3 - 4 line taps per day.
Gateway Signs & Intersections: The focus right now is to get the downtown put back together as best as possible and at that time open up work to start on the gateway signs and intersections.
B Avenue: Despite the weather and flooding there are positives. Right now storm sewer work is moving East on B Avenue with one of the two Maxwell crews that are in town right now. This is a phase two portion of the project and will prove a time saver later on in the project. The reason that we are able to work in multiple locations right now is that Maxwell Construction made the decision to "bore" through the alley's. This has allowed us to for the most parts be able to keep the alley's open for businesses.