Weather Not Good for Covell Underpass

Contractor for the new $6.1 million Covell Road underpass is still holding on to a March completion deadline despite weekly doses of bad weather.

Of course, they don’t give that deadline without saying WEATHER PERMITTING.

City Manager Larry Stevens told city council members Monday that the contractor has moved paving equipment on-site, but the recent winter weather has not allowed the work to begin.

Preliminary surveying work needed for the paving was scheduled to begin this week, Stevens said.

Contractor asked for a 140-day extension in December.  The joint state Department of Transportation and city of Edmond project was originally scheduled to be completed in mid-November.

The constractor was entitled to the delay because of the rainey weather and a 90-day delay while the BNSF Railway moved the tracks, Stevens said.

Edmond taxpayers are paying 20 percent of the bill, or $1.37 million. The money comes from a 2000 sales tax dedicated for capital improvements.