A power outage on the west side of Park Rapids Tuesday was apparently due to an equipment operator catching a shallow wire as part of concrete work on Highway 34.
Thursday, a utility com-pany representative said the wire was supposed to be 3 feet deep and was only bur-ied 1 foot. Electricity was out for about an hour.
The first lift of asphalt was being laid on the east end of the Highway 34 pro-ject Thursday morning with plans to start in town Thursday afternoon.
At Thursday's contrac-tor's meeting, Allan Min-nerath of Central Special-ties, Alexandria, general contractor for the project, said his crew is shaping gravel in town and if they can keep ahead, asphalt work will be concentrated in town.
After two lifts of asphalt are laid, the next step will be to lay the wear course. Min-nerath said. Depending on the weather, he hopes the final layer can be laid next week.
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Before the final layer goes on, crews will have to "lift iron" (raise manhole cov-ers).
When the wear course is laid, he said, traffic in town will be moved to the outer lanes while the middle lanes are being done and then to the inside lanes so the outer lanes can be completed.
"If traffic doesn't inter-fere too much," Minnerath said, adding the wear course should only take two days.
After that, the surface will be striped.
Traffic signal lights will be shut off until the wear course is finished, Min-nerath said
He also said the detour on Highway 34 east will remain in place until the wear course is finished there as well.
Concrete work will con-tinue on sidewalks and driveways and behind the curb, he added.
Weekly construction meetings are at 1 p.m. Thursdays at the Park Rap-ids Area Library, located at 210 West 1st St.
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