The purpose of this project is to replace the existing water main on Washtenaw Avenue from the southbound off-ramp of US-23 to a point approximately 350 feet west of the Washtenaw Avenue/Huron Parkway Intersection (near the Midas Auto Service Store.)
Construction began July 20, 2009 and is expected to be completed by mid-October. We have made the necessary contract provisions such that Washtenaw Avenue and the side streets will not be blocked during the Art Fair or University of Michigan Home football weekends. Most all of the construction will occur at night, but certain road restoration activities will occur during the day in order to minimize the duration of the planned work.
During the public meeting that was held in December, a question was posed by the business owners if it would be possible for the City to defer the water main project until calendar year 2010. This request was made because of the poor economic conditions that were forecast to exist within the City and the potential adverse affects that construction could have on the Washtenaw Avenue corridor. However, over the course of the last year, we’ve experienced two major water main breaks in the area of Mallet’s Creek along Washtenaw Avenue. During these water main breaks, several water main valves have also broken such that we are concerned that we may not be able to reliably shut-off the water main if it breaks again. Also, large sections of pavement along Washtenaw Avenue have been badly damaged.
While we can see the benefit of post-poning the work in order to help make these difficult economic times somewhat easier, due to the condition of the existing water main and our concerns about our ability to provide safe drinking water in this area, it is our opinion that we unfortunately cannot defer the work until 2010. Therefore, we have decided to move forward with the project this year as we need to complete the work and the funding is available at this time.
We plan to perform much of the construction at night in order to minimize disruption to this important and highly traveled corridor. Unfortunately, it will be necessary to install a portion, approximately 600 feet, of the water main within Washtenaw Avenue at the intersection of Huron Parkway. When performing this work, we will perform it at night in order to minimize traffic disruptions. Also, when we tie the new water main into the old main and have to turn off the water to do so, we plan on performing this work at night as well.
Upon completion of the portion of the water main installation in Washtenaw Avenue, we will then move on to the second phase of the project, which involves installing the remaining portion of the water main along the Washtenaw Service Drive. Again, the entire project is currently scheduled to be completed by mid-October.