As crews gear up to begin construction on Brentwood Place, the city and consulting firm in charge of the project have engineered a possible solution to allay concerns over access to the street and parking.
The $325,000 general obligation project will replace the entirety of the road in two stages. While construction takes place, each half will be closed in turn.
However, during the Monday city council meeting, Bill Egleston, who lives in the area, raised issue with the street closing. He said it would greatly impede residents' day-to-day lives because if a person's house is in whichever stage is being done at the time, that person would have no vehicular access.
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T-R PHOTO BY LUKE STALZER
Construction workers, one of which is shown here Wednesday afternoon, finished work on Madison Street from Second Street to Third Street this week. Crews will proceed with the Madison rebuild, which replaces sewer and water lines along with widening the street from two lanes to three lanes, heading eastward from Third Street to Sixth Street.
"This is going to be a severe hardship on some people," he said. "I'm just asking the contractor be made well aware."
According to a letter sent out to the property owners, the city is willing to work toward a favorable alternative.
Lynn Couch, public works director, said the project went to bid Thursday. Clapsaddle-Garber Associates, Inc. also met with the property owners Thursday to discuss whether a proposed roadway on the city-owned section of the property would alleviate the problem.
"I don't know whether they want a road in their front yard," Couch said.
Adam Daters, project manager with Clapsaddle-Garber, said construction will last 50 calendar days and will be completed this year. The expediency is to avoid prolonged restrictive access, he said.
During the council meeting, Curt Ward, city attorney, urged the public works department and Clapsaddle-Garber to provide an open lane of travel.
Work hours will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., greatly limiting times when area residents could have free access to their homes.
Couch said he hopes the roadway will solve the problem.
If the city proceeds with of the addition of the roadway, adding it to the construction specifications, the project cost will jump between $10,000 and $12,000 to install and remove the road. With that addition, the project cost would be between $335,000 and $337,000.
Other construction
Work on Main Street is complete and other projects are coming along, Couch said.
In particular, the Madison Street rebuild, which will widen the street from two lanes to three lanes, is taking a longer than some would have expected.
That slowness is due to work crews replacing the sewer laterals and water lines beneath the street, Couch said.
"Finding those sewer connections has not been the easiest task in the world," he said at the council meeting.
"It takes longer when you do a lot of that sewer work, and it's in our best interest," he added.
Should something go wrong with any of those lines, crews would have to dig up the pavement all over, he said.
Sub-base on Madison is complete from Third Street to Second Street, Couch said. Crews have begun moving eastward working on the sub-base from Sixth Street to Third Street.
Construction on 13th Street has also come to a halt until work is nearly complete on the culvert in late September. Crews are working on the sewer line beneath Summit Street that is prohibiting the culvert installation.
They will work their way toward 13th Street, Couch said, and arrive there sometime next week.
Southridge Road's rebuild is nearly finished. Its final leg gets underway Saturday. Couch said the road will be open before July 4.
Traffic signal poles for Olive Street will arrive July 24, Couch said. That project, a $488,000 effort to tear up the island and move the signals to the terrace, will get underway shortly thereafter.