By Ken Plowman
Fehr Graham
The subcontractor installing the water main has completed the section from Wisconsin 69 down to 5th Avenue. This is going through the testing process Friday and Monday at which time Subway, Dunkin Donuts, McDonald's, and the two water services to Dearth can be switched over to the new main. The swapping of these five services from the old main to the new main will require a short shut-down with this work scheduled for the middle of next week. The contractor will update these businesses as this work gets closer. Once the five services are switched to the new main the contractor will begin water main work from 5th Avenue to 3rd Avenue with the businesses in this stretch requiring a few temporary water shut-downs which will be coordinated as they get closer. This crew has also jumped over to the north side of 8th Street between 1st Avenue and 7 1/2 Street to complete some water main work ahead of schedule.
Rock Road has continued with storm sewer with this past week spent installing the new concrete pipe between 4th Avenue West and 7 1/2 Street on the south side of the road. They will have a few short runs of storm sewer to complete in this area but starting next week Rock Road is planning on removing the old road base and replacing this with the new aggregate base. This work will start at 6th Avenue West and head east toward 1st Avenue. Once the water main work is complete from Wis. 69 to 3rd Avenue the crews will be able to come in and do the storm sewer work in this section but that may be a week or more away.
I am sure many of you have noticed the traffic signal lights are no longer flashing. At the start of construction we wanted to leave them flashing to get everybody used to the traffic pattern but at some point they needed to be shut down to allow construction to continue and we decided to do that earlier this week. The stop signs are now controlling traffic at the intersections.
Many of you have contacted me with concerns about the 3rd Avenue intersection not being a four-way stop like the other intersections. We were really hoping to keep 8th Street traffic moving freely at this intersection as we have concerns about backed up traffic blocking drive ways close to 3rd Avenue but after numerous calls from concerned businesses and continued discussions with Monroe Police officers, it became apparent that drivers were not using this intersection properly. We installed two additional stop signs to make this a four-way stop shortly after the lunch hour Friday. Although we still have concerns about traffic congestion, we couldn't continue with the confusion that everybody was seeing. We hope this change helps the traffic flow and our concerns over back-ups are found to be unwarranted.
I continue to be impressed with everybody's patience up to this point. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns as we move forward.
Thank you.
- Ken Plowman is Senior Engineering Technician for Fehr Graham, which the city of Monroe hired for the 8th Street project.
Fehr Graham
The subcontractor installing the water main has completed the section from Wisconsin 69 down to 5th Avenue. This is going through the testing process Friday and Monday at which time Subway, Dunkin Donuts, McDonald's, and the two water services to Dearth can be switched over to the new main. The swapping of these five services from the old main to the new main will require a short shut-down with this work scheduled for the middle of next week. The contractor will update these businesses as this work gets closer. Once the five services are switched to the new main the contractor will begin water main work from 5th Avenue to 3rd Avenue with the businesses in this stretch requiring a few temporary water shut-downs which will be coordinated as they get closer. This crew has also jumped over to the north side of 8th Street between 1st Avenue and 7 1/2 Street to complete some water main work ahead of schedule.
Rock Road has continued with storm sewer with this past week spent installing the new concrete pipe between 4th Avenue West and 7 1/2 Street on the south side of the road. They will have a few short runs of storm sewer to complete in this area but starting next week Rock Road is planning on removing the old road base and replacing this with the new aggregate base. This work will start at 6th Avenue West and head east toward 1st Avenue. Once the water main work is complete from Wis. 69 to 3rd Avenue the crews will be able to come in and do the storm sewer work in this section but that may be a week or more away.
I am sure many of you have noticed the traffic signal lights are no longer flashing. At the start of construction we wanted to leave them flashing to get everybody used to the traffic pattern but at some point they needed to be shut down to allow construction to continue and we decided to do that earlier this week. The stop signs are now controlling traffic at the intersections.
Many of you have contacted me with concerns about the 3rd Avenue intersection not being a four-way stop like the other intersections. We were really hoping to keep 8th Street traffic moving freely at this intersection as we have concerns about backed up traffic blocking drive ways close to 3rd Avenue but after numerous calls from concerned businesses and continued discussions with Monroe Police officers, it became apparent that drivers were not using this intersection properly. We installed two additional stop signs to make this a four-way stop shortly after the lunch hour Friday. Although we still have concerns about traffic congestion, we couldn't continue with the confusion that everybody was seeing. We hope this change helps the traffic flow and our concerns over back-ups are found to be unwarranted.
I continue to be impressed with everybody's patience up to this point. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns as we move forward.
Thank you.
- Ken Plowman is Senior Engineering Technician for Fehr Graham, which the city of Monroe hired for the 8th Street project.