What is the deal with these steel plates?

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A source of curiosity for many drivers, the metal plates on Lucinda Street have been in place to allow the settling of the earth around newly-repaired underground phone lines.

Motorists passing down the 1200 block of Lucinda Street in recent weeks have had to slow to a crawl to ease up and over a set of massive steel plates stretching across the street.

The plates, Perry Public Works Director Jack Butler said, and there because of work done on underground phone lines and should be removed in the coming days.

Butler said Lucinda Street was the subject of a resurfacing project eight or nine years ago. It was discovered at that time that a Qwest phone cable “about the size of football in width,” according to Butler, had to be placed deeper underground.

That work proceeded without incident, but it was recently discovered that the phone lines — which are in a pressurized cable — had developed a leak, interfering with telecommunications in downtown Perry.

Iowa One Call sent a crew of locators to Perry to find and fix the problem, which was discovered to be under the eastbound (south) lane of Lucinda Street. The steel plates were put in position after earth was filled back in and given two weeks to settle the success of the repair could be determined.

Just as that two weeks was ending, a small leak was discovered under the westbound (north) lane, and the process began all over again.

Butler said Q3 Construction from Des Moines was hired to completely repair and resurface both 10×12 foot sections of roadway. He stressed that the city required the entirety of both parcels to be resurfaced to prevent “carving up” parts of a section instead of replacing the entire piece.

“I thought they might already be at work on it,” Butler said. “The weather might be playing a role, but I would still expect the job to be done within the next several days.”

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If the weather cooperates, the metal plates covering a stretch of Lucinda Street will be replaced by new pavement in the coming days.
If the weather cooperates, the metal plates covering a stretch of Lucinda Street will be replaced by new pavement in the coming days.

 

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