City of Sparta - Updates on Water Street Project

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Dear Interested Citizens,

As many of you know, A-1 Excavating held a public information meeting regarding the Water St. project yesterday. I wanted to pass on some of the details to you, in case you missed it. Some of these may change, but this is the plan as we have it now.

A-1’s project manager is John Sworski, 715-568-4141. His e-mail address is jsworski@a1excavating.com. They will be providing periodic updates (weekly?) throughout the project.
They are planning to start putting traffic control into place the week of April 7, and demolition of the street will start April 10.
They plan to do all demolition at once, not phasing the project.
Once the demolition crew has opened enough area, the utility crew will start with sanitary sewer replacement. They are planning to start on the south end, first with sewer, then water main, then storm sewer and gravel.
They are planning to work on 1-2 blocks at a time, but may be more, especially if they have more than 2 utility crews working.
The contract is for 115 work days, which puts the finish date at late September. The contractor is actually hoping to be done sooner than that, but if delays are encountered (especially due to weather), they will be given that same number of additional days to finish the work.
They acknowledged the need to provide temporary (gravel) access across Franklin, Main and Oak intersections, and plan to leave those areas open when not working right there. They may also provide temporary access to other areas if not working there for a week or more. This should allow some deliveries, garbage collection, and emergency response. Temporary access will also be provided for the residential area on the west side of Water St. north of Franklin.
The main lines of utilities will be installed first, followed by laterals to each building. The foreman will coordinate any interruptions with owners a day or two in advance.
In the downtown, there’s no plan to have a joint in the sidewalk running parallel with the curb, which makes shoveling hard for owners.
In the downtown, water services will be replaced to the meter inside the basement. Sewer services will be replaced to just outside the building, but all owners who may have concerns with the rest of their lateral should hire a plumber to coordinate with the contractor to do this work at the same time.
Any coal chutes extending into the street are to be removed through this project.
Temporary sidewalks will be provided to all businesses during the project, comprised of gravel or plywood.
They will be putting up a DOT trailer near the old farmer’s market area by the Main St. bridge, with emergency contact information posted on it.
They are aware of the parades passing the Franklin intersection, and will make it as passable and clear as possible beforehand.
American Engineering & Inspections will do the inspection on each downtown structure prior to the work starting. They will coordinate this inspection with the owners beforehand.
People won’t be able to drive on new concrete for at least a week, including new driveway aprons. Wider driveways may be done half at a time to allow use of one half while the other half cures. People will be notified to remove any vehicles they need access to before the work is done.
The contractor plans to work five days a week, from 7:00 to 6:00. They will only work Saturdays if they encounter weather delays.
They will use standard barricades to close off the street. Please remember that access will be very limited or unavailable during the project.
If any steps are protruding into the sidewalk area of the downtown, the contractor will remove them. If the situation allows the sidewalk to be eliminated, it will be, but if it needs to be replaced, the contractor will do that. The DOT will make these determinations. Any step work needed off the right of way is the owner’s responsibility.
Some of the subcontractors include Gerke (pavement removal), Vista (bridge replacement), and Madison Contractors (retaining wall).
The trees that are scheduled to be removed should have been marked by DOT staff. More trees may have to be removed as conflicts arise.
The contractor plans to install the new stoplights at Montgomery & Water once the electrician is able to do the prep work. Efforts will be made to coordinate the timing of these with the heaviest traffic from the schools or Ft. McCoy.

April 2, 2008

Water St. Owners,

As some of you heard this morning, a preconstruction conference was held yesterday with the DOT and contractors for the Water St. project. Although much of the meeting was just coordination between the prime contractor and his subcontractors and utilities, some of the details may be of interest to you. Here are some of the highlights from that meeting, as well as this morning’s meeting at Park Bank. As always, if you have questions or want more information, please let me know.

The schedule is still planned for demolition to begin 4/10. A-1 is tentatively planning to start underground work 4/14. The entire stretch of Water St. will be closed at once to allow the contractor to demolish as efficiently as possible.
A-1 has decided to keep downtown sidewalks in place as long as possible, to provide more convenient access to businesses. They will have to remove some sections when running new sewer and water utilities to buildings, and other utilities (gas, electric, etc.), may affect the sidewalks. But as much as possible, they will leave these sidewalks until they are close to pouring new ones.
As a reminder, they plan to maintain local pedestrian access to all businesses and residences throughout the project, and to have local vehicle access to residents on the west side of the north end of the project to their property. How they accomplish this is up to them (gravel, plywood, whether to include driveways, etc.).
They plan to let people know at least 24 hours in advance of shutting off driveways, so people can get vehicles out that they may need.
The emergency access driveways across Franklin, Main and Oak will be 18’ wide, and as a minimum will be open from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., plus weekends. Again, I am hoping the contractor will keep these open at other times when not working right there.
The demolition of the bridge is scheduled to start on 4/14. False decking (placed under the bridge to protect the creek from construction debris) will start 4/7, deck removal to start 4/14, beam removal to start 4/17 or 4/18. Vista, the bridge contractor, plans to work four-day weeks.
Vista is trying to make arrangements to remove the bridge at one time (rather than two phases) and to restore temporary access to the front of the Beautique as soon as possible. The fire dept. approved this plan this morning, but we need to see a complete plan from the contractor (dates, locations, cost savings, etc.) before approving it. They would also have to improve the temporary access to the rear of the Beautique, and provide some signage for customers and pedestrians. They may remove the awning from the Beautique to help get the new beams set from the south. If this plan is approved, he’s hoping to finish the bridge by Memorial Day.
We are planning to have Vista show us a proposed new top to the bridge railing at a Historic Preservation Commission meeting on 4/22.
The DOT is aware of 3 coal bins that will require removal and blocking up the wall of the business. The Beautique owner will have to coordinate with the DOT to have old fuel tanks protected when the sidewalk is removed, and then can have the tanks removed before new construction is done.
The retaining wall on the 400 block of N. Water will not have the grid connecting it to the soils that I expected. It’s a heavier block, held in place by gravity, with some fabric extended behind it to keep the sand drainage layer separate from other soils around it. This was done to keep from digging farther back into the yards more than needed.
Please respect the barricades and any fencing put up by the contractor. This is done to protect public safety. If people try to get around these, then access may have to be restricted even further to put safety first.
The electrical contractor plans to allow the City to take old streetlights and stoplights as desired. If any of you have a use for any of these, let me know. I would first use them for replacement parts where we can, but will likely have some items left over.
The contractor still needs to have each downtown building inspected before construction begins. The DOT will be keeping these records, in case you want to see yours.
Steps in front of businesses are often an integral part of the rest of the entrance or the building itself. In these cases, the steps will be left alone. If the steps stand alone, they will be replaced unless there is a gradual enough slope to allow them to be eliminated, but I’m not aware of any of those.
The work on E. Franklin Street will stop just short of the alley by Curt’s Barber shop, so access to the rear of those buildings should be maintained. The work on W. Franklin goes all the way to the bridge, so there will be times when the access to the Lanham Miller parking lot and south parking lot will be affected. I have asked the contractor to allow access as much as possible to these lots.
It appears that the electrical work and placing bases for new streetlights isn’t scheduled until mid-June at the earliest. The Greenery’s awning shouldn’t be a conflict at least until this point (unless there’s a conflict with setting the new bridge beams).