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Work may delay traffic on 8th, 9th streets
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MONROE - Motorists may want to re-route trips away from 8th and 9th streets for the next couple of months.

Alliant Energy will be relocating or replacing approximately 30 utility poles along the 8th and 9th streets corridor, from 20th Avenue to Wis. 69, in anticipation of the city's reconstruction project next year. The work is scheduled to begin Oct. 4 and be completed in mid-November.

Approximately 22 trees will need to be removed prior to Alliant beginning its work. The tree will be removed during the last week of September and the first week of October.

WE Energies is scheduled to update and relocate portions of the gas utility during October, and the work should take 60 working days.

There may be temporary lane and road closures during the project. Road closures will be limited to one or two blocks at a time.

Alliant will be using about five trucks and 10 employees on the job, according to Donna Bradley, Alliant supervisor-customer operations in Monroe.

Bradley said the company uses special equipment to do such major work in a small space, which is part of Alliant's normal operations.

New pole structures range in height from 35 to 50 feet, with the majority being 40 to 45 feet. An average pole can weigh between 880 and 2,080 pounds.

Alliant will remove 24 pole structures and anticipates its portion of the project to last six to eight weeks.

The time frame may need to be adjusted based on weather conditions and planned outages, Bradley said.

According to Kelly Finkenbinder, Monroe's director of public works, the street, or at least a lane, will be closed a block or two at a time.

WE Energies will be working in the area at about the same time to minimize interruption to the traffic flow.

In addition, Charter Cable will be removing and re-attaching its equipment during the construction.