Cornville residents must wait an unknown number of days for reconstruction of Cornville Road to be completed due to unanticipated soggy ground, Yavapai County Assistant County Engineer Tim Stotler said.
Stotler declined to predict how many more days work must continue to stabilize a 150-foot-long section of swampy ground near Windmill Park. Until the ground is secured and paved for the final time, the project will not be complete. Paved and torn up twice already, engineers are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Stotler also declined to identify any single individual or firm as being responsible for the delay. The stability of the roadway could not be foreseen, he said.
The cost overrun caused by the delay, which Stotler was not immediately able to calculate, will be paid from a $250,000 contingency fund anticipated by county supervisors when the project was first approved.
“We are still on track to come in under budget on this project,” Stotler said.
Planning for the reconstruction of Cornville Road started two years ago.
“We’ve had some delays like many projects,” Stotler said. “Groundwater down by the pond area, within the actual community itself, was more extensive than anticipated.”
“We had to do some redesign,” he said. “The ground is very soft, quite muddy.”
Initially, the contractor dug the area out and stabilized the 150-foot stretch using large boulders. The boulders were buried and the road paved, but it still proved unstable. The current delay was required when the boulders failed.
More recently, engineers ordered the section dug up again and covered over with tons more concrete, Stotler said. The project is delayed while engineers determine whether more stabilization will be needed.
Meanwhile, the remainder of the project is more than 90 percent complete. A pleasant drive to the swampy section from State Route 89A proved as much Thursday, Oct. 27. The thoroughfare is flat, black, wide and comfortably banked in the curves. Delays are brief as workers put on the finishing touches.
