Road work continues on Gene Field

By Harry Loomis

Portions of Gene Field Road are continuing to see construction, though an end may be in sight for the projects.

This week, the road has been closed between Pembroke Lane and the Belt Highway. Road work on Gene Field was already intended due to overlay plans, however the extreme cold and current warm temperatures helped to speed along the timeline.

However, repairs are expected to be completed as early as Friday.

“It had a lot of base failures in it,” said Jackson Jones, superintendent of streets and infrastructure. “Working with public works on their overlay program, they gave us a heads up. We went out and made a bunch of base repairs so the overlay doesn’t fail prematurely.”

This closure has affected businesses like Pizza Hut and Valvoline, whose entrances from Gene Field have been blocked off by construction. These businesses were notified weeks in advance to be able to prepare.

“They didn’t tell us what they were doing but they said it was going to be shut down for a little while,” said Jovan Clark, lube technician at Valvoline. “They were giving us access to our business via the apartment streets. Some of our employees are forced to park up at Pizza Hut.”

Tenth Street recently reopened after being closed between Edmond and Felix streets since last week. The issue there had been pieces of concrete coming up.

“There’s a lot of areas down through that place that had sunken and broken up,” Jones said. “Not necessarily potholes, but just a complete failure of the main out of the slab. So that’s what that was, the slab replacement.”