Construction wraps up at 13th Street and North Road

If anyone has driven through Grand Island lately, it is known there are plenty of construction projects going on. But there is reason to celebrate as one project wraps up Thursday.

Construction on 13th Street and North Road will be open to traffic starting Friday.

The project began in February of this year and was originally supposed to finish in September. Crews found utility lines that they did not expect and had to work around.

The project created a concrete curb and gutter to help with drainage of the area.

“13th street had no facility for drainage and it was an old county section of road,” Public Works Director John Collins said. “We upgraded it to curb and gutter, provided drainage from the intersection with North Road all the way down to Morris Creek.”

A roundabout is also new in hopes to clear up some of the congestion on North Rd near Westridge Middle School.

“We had worked on this with the school in mind in particular as well as the fire station,” Collins said. “There is a new fire station going in on north road south of 13th and this will allow traffic to be slowed and metered out in a manner that the fire trucks can make their emergency exits.”

There will be some cleanup to the project in the spring once the weather begins to warm up.