Several projects in Michigan have been impacted by a labor dispute between some operators and construction company owners. While this dispute has caused some projects to shut down, it has accelerated others as subcontractors look for new places to work. This is the case for the West Avenue portion of the water main and street repaving project in the Essex Heights neighborhood.
Next Monday, October 1, 2018, work to replace the water main on West Avenue between Crescent Road and Bloomfield Boulevard will commence. This section of West Avenue will be closed to through traffic but will remain open for those who live in the work zone to access their homes. Access to the Middle School at Parkside will remain open via Fourth Street. The current detour signing in the neighborhood will be modified to direct all school traffic to Fourth Street.
The West Avenue work will not cause a delay on Crescent Road. The crew on Crescent Road will remain on task – connecting homes to the new water main and then building the new pavement structure.
A separate crew will arrive on site on Monday to do the West Avenue work. They will first cut the pavement and trench in the new water main pipe. This is scheduled to take about a week to complete.
Fourth Street Weekly Construction Update
The first part of the past week was spent cutting the grade of the roadbed down to the bottom of the new gravel base. The process of placing and compacting the new gravel base within the roadbed commenced in the second half of the past week. A large portion of the gravel base in now in place on Hickory alongside the mini-golf course between Fourth Street and the softball diamonds. Also in the past week, the section of water main to be replaced at the new Hickory roundabout was successfully tested and confirmed to be bacteria free and safe to put into use.
Next week, work will commence on several different work items.
The contractor began connecting the new replacement water main to the City-wide distribution system. This will require the water to be shut off to the Ella Sharp Museum for a short period. The impact to other water customers should be minimal.
On Tuesday, a crew of electricians will arrive on site to place conduits for the street lights that will illuminate the new roundabout. At the same time, the concrete crew will arrive to begin their work. They will first place the decorative wall that will be in the center of the new roundabout. The wall work will take most of the next week to complete. Once the wall is in place, the concrete crew will build the replacement path alongside Hickory and then the new curb and gutters on Hickory. Once they are done on Hickory, they will build the new curb and gutters around the roundabout.
This is the weekly update for Friday, September 21, 2018 for construction on Crescent Road, West Avenue and in the Essex Heights Neighborhood.
Crescent Road Weekly Construction Update
In the past week, the contractor continued working to replace the sanitary sewer on Crescent Road between Avondale and Fourth Street. The crew started at Fourth Street and has worked their way past Briarcliff. They are scheduled to make it to Avondale in the middle of next week. At that point, replacement of the sewer main will be complete.
Also in the past week, the new water main pipe between West and Fourth underwent the process of disinfection, sampling and testing. Unfortunately, satisfactory results were not achieved. Therefore, the pipe was subjected to a second and third round of disinfection and is currently being sampled and tested. The new pipe will not be put into service until the testing shows that the pipe is free of bacteria. The next round of results will be available in the middle of next week. Once testing results show the pipe is safe for use, it will be connected to the City-wide distribution system and the work of connecting homes within the work zone to the new pipe will commence.