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Crews from Nobles Construction continued work on the 37th Street renovation project this morning. City Public Works Director Eli Torres said he hopes the road will be open to traffic by Friday. While work is being done, portions of the road will be closed.
Despite a highly uncooperative Mother Nature and some untimely material shortages, crews are closing in on the completion of their renovation of 37th Street.
The $477,000 resurfacing of 37th Street from College Ave. to El Paso Ave. is almost complete and officials hope to reopen it to traffic in time for the weekend.
“Weather permitting, we hope to be finished with it by 5 p.m. Friday,” City Public Works Director Eli Torres said. A rueful chuckle at the end of Torres’ comment was well-earned, because the weather has been anything but cooperative during the project.
The day after crews began work on 37th on Oct. 11, it rained. Then it rained the day after that.
In all, eight straight days of rainfall pushed the completion of the renovation past the original two-week estimate Torres gave before the project began.
The skies eventually cleared enough for crews to resume work, but a new gremlin appeared Monday.
“The plant that makes hot mix for us is backed up on orders because of the weather,” Torres said. “We had to stop Monday because we ran out of hot mix. Hopefully, we’ll get some more (Tuesday).”
So, if the weather cooperates — and the needed road material arrives as hoped — Torres said he expects crews to finish the project by Friday afternoon.
In the meantime, 37th Street will be reopened for brief periods Wednesday to allow traffic to and from Snyder ISD schools, which are all adjacent to the street.
Torres said 37th Street will be open to traffic from 7-8:30 a.m. Wednesday, while traffic will be allowed on the outside lanes only on Thursday while crews perform repairs on two manhole covers and 20 water valves.
Current plans call for the street will be striped and marked Wednesday.