With bits and pieces of good weather in Riverbank over the past week, a contracting crew working for Caltrans began work on curbs at several intersections along Highway 108, Atchison Street, in downtown.

On Tuesday, Feb. 21, crews had demolished the sidewalks at Third and Fourth streets on Atchison.

According to the crew chief, their work includes rebuilding the curbs at those intersections in compliance with handicapped access laws, with ramps allowing for wheelchairs to navigate the corners.

In addition, he said, the storm drains at the two intersections will either be replaced or repaired.

At Third and Atchison, the drain crosses east and west, he said, so it crosses Third on the north side of the highway, from the Methodist Church to property owned by the Setliff family. He noted that a chain link fence around that property encroached on the Caltrans right of way and had to be moved before they could begin work on that side.

Still, that part of the storm drain work should be relatively easy, once the weather cooperates. It’s supposed to be pretty stormy this week, the weather forecasters have predicted.

The crew chief said the drain at Fourth Street crosses the highway, going south, so it will be a more complicated ‘fix’.

He said they’ll be putting a camera through the pipe to determine its condition, then, if appropriate, they’ll be pushing a slightly smaller pipe through the old one. That should save them from having to dig it up to replace it, also saving them from having to interrupt traffic on Highway 108 to do so.

The foreman said his company would be working on replacing the stop light system at First Street and Patterson Road (also Highway 108) sometime later this spring.

How quickly all this happens, of course, depends on how well the weather cooperates.