As a backhoe carved out big chunks of 60-year-old concrete from old Highway 10 just outside the Staples City Hall windows Monday morning, the engineer, contractor and other officials met in the council chambers to discuss progress on the project.

The turnback project is gradually moving west, with crews removing the roadway up to Sixth Street on Monday morning. Behind the first backhoe, other machines were at work a block or two east working on new water and sewer lines

The two officials in charge said the crews expect to start removing pavement between Sixth to Fourth Streets next week. Both Contractor Tom Thompson of Tom’s Backhoe Service and Tim Houle of the consulting engineers emphasized the project timing is dependent on good weather and no major surprises.

“One thing for sure is we will run into a few surprises,” Thompson added.

This week the construction crews will be shutting off the old signal lights onFourth Street this Thursday and switching it over to a four-way stop sign, which is what it will be when construction is finished.

Thompson said the majority of his work was finished on the three blocks of Second Avenue from 9th to 12th Streets, leaving them with a Class 5 gravel surface for now. Sub contractors will be doing concrete (curb and gutter and sidewalk) work and building retaining walls this week in that three block stretch. A first layer or lift of asphalt could be going down on those three blocks and on one block of 9th and 11th Streets either late this week or next week.

Between now and July 24, most of the underground utility installation (water and sewer mains and storm culvert) should be done between Sixth to Ninth streets. Tom expects storm sewer work to continue into the week of July 25-31.

Late next week, however, crews could begin digging up the block between Fifth and Sixth Streets, removing the street surface. Shortly after the surface is removed, water main, sanitary sewer and storm water culverts under that block will be installed. Businesses in that stretch will be hooked to temporary city water lines when their normal service line are being dug up and replaced.

Houle, Tom Thompson and others decided to walk the downtown blocks of the project this past Tuesday to scout for any unexpected items and also give Thompson a chance to meet with some of the property owners along the way.T

hompson indicated that his crews next week will remove the pavement from Fifth to Sixth Street on old Highway10. After that, they will move to the the Sacred Heart Church corner and work their way south, removing pavement. The south two blocks of Fourth Street, centered at the stop light intersection will be torn up. The stoplights could be removed as early as this week, Thompson also indicated.

Once they have the pavement removed from Fourth Street, Tom’s Backhoe crews will turn east and remove the remaining block of pavement from Fourth to Fifth Street.

Local residents and business can expect to encounter dirt streets on what used to be the two blocks of Fourth Street and all of old Highway 10 east of the Fourth Street intersection by about August 1.

One thing that can delay the project is contaminated soil, which the engineers expect to find in locations where fuel service stations were once located, such as the corner of Fifth Street, where a Pure Oil Station preceded the current Staples Off Sale business. If they encounter contaminated soil, it must be removed and stored separate from other soils until it can be de-contaminated. A similar process will be needed if they find contaminated ground water.

Several other former oil stations were once scattered along the old highway route through Staples.

Houle said the schedule, with an October completion date, is a “tight, tight project.”

In response to questions raised Monday morning at the progress meeting, Houle described the materials being used. The water and sewer mains are PVC pipe with gaskets at the seams and the storm sewer is concrete culvert with rubber seams. After the lines are installed, the water lines are pressure tested and the sewer lines are televised to ensure no leakage.

The pipes being removed are from 60 to 80 years old, he said. They see no reason why this new pipe should not last at least that long.