Photo courtesy City of Jackson
A busy roadway in a neighborhood on Jackson’s southwest side is closed for water main replacement and pavement resurfacing. West Avenue between Bloomfield Boulevard and Crescent Road was closed to through traffic the morning of Monday Oct. 1. Crews will begin work on Tuesday Oct. 2 to replace the water main underneath West Avenue. In a news release, the city stated that the city is doing this work now because they want it to be complete before extensive work on water mains/road resurfacing happens in the Essex Heights neighborhood next spring.
On Tuesday, a mill will arrive to remove the pavement from the lane where the new water main pipe will be installed. An excavation crew will arrive on Wednesday to begin the work of trenching the new pipe into place. While this work progresses, West Avenue will remain open to that those who live within the work zone can access their homes.
After crews are finished with work on the new water main, pavement on this stretch of West Avenue will be resurfaced. Assistant City Engineer Troy White says this is part of a larger project to replace old water mains and resurface pothole-ridden streets in the Essex Heights neighborhood. “A lot of this infrastructure is from the 1920s, so it is important to replace parts that no longer work, and provide a continuous backbone of infrastructure through this neighborhood,” White said.
Construction on West Avenue is expected to wrap up in November. Residents in the work zone will still be able to reach homes. However, the roadway is now closed to through traffic. Drivers can use Fourth Street or Kibby Road as a detour.
Fourth Street Construction Update
In the past week, a number of items were completed. The new water main pipe around the new roundabout at Hickory was connected to the City-wide distribution system and put into service. The last sections of storm sewer in the roundabout area were completed. And the concrete non-motorized trail along Hickory from east of the mini-golf parking lot to Fourth Street was placed as was the new concrete sidewalk along the east side of Fourth Street from Hickory to the border of the Alpine Lake Apartments.
Early this week, the concrete crew will work to install the new curb and gutters on Hickory between the softball diamonds and Fourth Street. While curb work is in progress, the excavation crew will excavate for the footings of the decorative wall in the middle of the new roundabout island. By the middle of the week, they will be ready for the concrete crew to form and pour the new wall. This is scheduled to take about a week to complete. Once the wall is in, the concrete crew will place the new curb and gutters around the perimeter and on each leg of the new roundabout. The entirety of the concrete crew’s work will take a two to three weeks to complete.
Edgewood Street Construction Update
In the past week, work on Edgewood between Michigan and Forest progressed while work between Forest and Ganson did not.
Between Michigan and Forest, the contractor installed new copper water service pipe from the basements of houses to the new water main under the street. A plumber will arrive on-site this week to connect these new services to the plumbing within the basement of each house. While the plumber works in the basements, the excavation crew will work to grade the roadbed and place the new gravel base between Michigan and Forest.
On the section of Edgewood between Forest and Ganson, no significant progress was made in the past week. After failing the first round of testing, the pipe was disinfected for a second time and then re-sampled and tested. Unfortunately, the second round of testing also failed to show the new pipe to be free of bacteria. Therefore, late this past week, the pipe underwent a third round of disinfection and is currently being sampled and tested yet again. Results are expected back early this week.
Crescent Road Construction Update
In the past week, the last of the replacement sanitary sewer main under Crescent Road was trenched into place. The crew that installed the sewer is currently working to replace the sanitary service pipe from the property line of each house to the new sewer main under the street. This work will continue through this week.
Work by a separate crew to replace the water service from each house in the work zone to the new water main pipe under the street also started in the past week. The water service crew will return this week to continue this task. It will likely take about a week and a half to get all of the houses on Crescent done.
Next week, a small third crew is scheduled to arrive on Crescent Road to start the task of grading the roadbed and placing and compacting the new gravel base.