New Cocrete south of Panora. End-loader was used to bring concrete for bridge approaches, a paving machine elsewhereBy CHUCK OFFENBURGER

PANORA, Iowa, July 13, 2007 – We haven’t been this excited about new concrete since we saw the first real floor go into the cellar of our old farmhouse.

The first two miles of gleaming new concrete was in place by Thursday evening, July 12, in the five-mile resurfacing project underway now on the Raccoon River Valley Trail between Panora and Linden. The work started in Panora and is progressing south toward Linden.

That five-mile portion of the trail remains closed until all work is complete, and that will include new gravel on the shoulders and the traffic signs being installed again.

Cyclists using the RRVT in the final week of preparation for RAGBRAI (the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, which is being held July 22-28) should be prepared to detour from Linden to Panora on paved county roads. They should also keep in mind that Iowa Highway 44, which goes into Panora from the east, is also being rebuilt this summer, so while riding into Panora is still possible, you need to be especially cautious about vehicular traffic and rough road conditions. There is no other construction work happening on the rest of the 56-mile-long RRVT.

Further updates will be posted regularly on this Internet site, so that trail users will know when the closed portion of the trail is being re-opened for normal use.

The company doing the resurfacing is Knife River Midwest LLC, of Decorah in northeast Iowa.  Company employees said they are loving doing this concrete work in the canopy of trees that covers much of the trail, a dramatic contrast to when they are normally working in direct sunlight on highway or airport projects.

They first prepared the old asphalt surface, which had been in place since the trail opened in 1989, so that they could pave over it. Then they began pouring four inches of new concrete, to a width of eight feet.  A walk down the trail Thursday evening, alongside the new concrete, revealed the new surface to be perfectly smooth. The cross-cuts, which are being done every eight feet, are being done while the concrete is still wet with specially-designed equipment, and that is supposed to minimize any later “heaving” of the surface.

Total cost for the resurfacing project on the five miles is $407,977.

“We hate to have to close any part of the trail right in the middle of the season, but we had to fit into the schedule that the contractor has on this project and several other ones they have going on through the summer,” said Joe Hanner, Guthrie County Conservation Board director. “To get the most favorable pricing, we had to do it now.”

He said that hopefully funding can be found so that resurfacing on north from Panora, about five miles to the town of Yale, can be completed late in the summer or fall of 2008, or possibly in the 2009 construction season. That is another stretch of original surface on the RRVT.

Hanner, his Conservation Board members, the RRVT Committee of the Panora economic development group, Guthrie County citizens, and members of the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association have worked hard seeking grants and donations to pay for the resurfacing over the past several years. “Local fundraising and support has played a huge role in developing this project,” Hanner said.

The $407,977 includes $175,000 in funding from the State Recreational Trails Grant, a direct appropriation of $100,000 from the Guthrie County Board of Supervisors, contributions from the county’s REAP and Conservation Reserve funds, and private donations.

“This paving process is called ‘white-topping’ and it is precedent-setting, as far as being used on recreational trails in Iowa,” said Hanner. “A lot of people in the concrete paving industry are watching this. So far, everything seems to be going fantastic. We’ll have to watch it afterward, to see how it settles. And the point where the rubber hits the road for this, so to speak, is when the cyclists get on it again and we hear what they think of it. But so far, it looks real good.”

Article Published: 07-13-2007