Construction Alert No. 21
Pioneer Way Reconstruction Project

October 4, 2011

“Raising Iron” Raises Some Questions

At this morning’s regular Tuesday AM coffee, we were asked about why the contractor was jackhammering holes into the freshly completed paving. Great question and certainly worthy of a quick construction alert. It is standard practice in street construction to bring the water valve casings and manholes up to street level after the final asphalt has been applied. This process, termed “raising iron” in construction-speak, involves removing the asphalt above these structures using a jackhammer, installing risers to bring them up to street level and then patching the area around the hole.

A natural follow-up question is why can’t these structures be brought up to finished street level prior to paving? Put simply, it is to protect both the underground utilities and the paving equipment from potential damage should the paver catch on the edge of the structure. Not only would it damage the equipment, but it would likely pull the structure out of alignment or, worse, break the structure itself and/or the underground pipes that connect to it.

The raising iron work is scheduled to be completed by Thursday of this week.

Key City Contact People

Larry Cort
Project Manager
360 914-7107
lcort@oakharbor.org

Joe Stowell
Project Engineer
360 279-4520
jstowell@oakharbor.org

Rhonda Severns
City Utilities
360 914-7256
rhseverns@oakharbor.org