As A&K Earth Movers completed the work on Maine Street in front of the Court House, they discovered an interesting phenomenon in their problem-solving of how to fix the larger-than-usual bumps that continued to develop with the use of the road.
General Superintendent Jerry Giovanetti and other members of his A&K crew did some research at the Churchill County Museum one day, wondering what that old stretch of the street used to look like. In photos from 1907 and the 30s, they discovered that the north side of Maine Street used to have two rows of trees planted on either side, leading all the way north to Kent’s. The old cottonwoods formed a canopy over the street called “Lover’s Lane.”
“When you line up Maine Street, that tree line on the west side near the courthouse is exactly where we were having problems,” said Giovanetti.
He said when those trees were cut down, the stumps were left in the ground, and the road built over the top of them. Over the years, as the stumps have rotted, the road has begun failing.
“If you looked at the damage in the road before we figured this out, you could see the dips spaced out perfectly like a line of trees,” he said. “I said it was the trees, and sure enough, we had to go in and dig them out and grout the root holes and fill in with base.”
As the work on the road progressed, and the discovery of the underground tree stumps was made, Giovanetti said the first time they dug to explore the situation turned up a hole about eight inches around, but where the tree had rotted created large twelve-foot voids under the highway. Crews have had to dig out all the trees and the entire area, filling it in with base materials and then repaving the street.
Now that the problem-solving has turned up a solution, there are only a couple more weeks of work to complete what will, with any luck, be a permanent fix and a smooth road in front of the courthouse.
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