Better roads but lots of dust

By Virgil Hervey

If you wake up one morning to a mechanical clatter and draw your blinds to see what is the matter, instead of Santa in a red hat, you might find a man on a roller. This scenario is being played out all over town these days as work on the village’s roads progresses.

According to Village Planner Ed Amrhein, the road project will involve work on sections of 12 village roads.

As of this writing, some of the major work, which involves milling the road surface down two inches, has already taken place on East Enon Road, and West South College Street. Those roads have since been paved and milling has been started on South High and Limestone streets. Next up will be Corry Street between Dayton Street and Xenia Avenue and Dayton Street from the bikepath to Xenia Avenue.

Some roads, such as Allen Street, will not be milled, but instead will be scored and will receive an overlay of new asphalt. Others, such as Corry, Elm and North Stafford Streets, will receive milling or overlay resurfacing in various sections according to the condition of the road surface. All of the work is expected to be done by the end of this week.

The estimated cost of the road work is $489,000. According to Amrhein, collective bidding through the county locked in a low unit price. Whereas the Village would normally pay $56 per ton for bulk asphalt, under the current bid it is paying $49 per ton installed. The contract contains a contingency measure in the event the Village decides to go beyond the estimated work.

“If we ask them to do more work, it will be cheaper than doing it ourselves,” Amrhein said. “The hardest question to answer is ‘Where to stop?’ The village’s roads are in such bad shape because we let them go too long.”

The project is being paid for out of Village revenues and was made possible by the levy that passed last fall, Amrhein said.

In a seperate project, a new waterline and sewer replacement project is taking place on South Walnut Street, designed in part to solve a water flow problem on Xenia Avenue for the downtown area in order to improve firefighting capacity. The project includes the extension of a waterline down Short Street from South Walnut and the installation of a hydrant in front of Downing’s Hardware.

The work, which began in early August, is proceeding nicely, Amrhein said, and is expected to be finished by the Street Fair on Oct. 13. Even if it is not completed, the road will still be usable for Street Fair.

“We told the contractor there would be 30,000 visitors, so if he is not done, he will have to remove all his equipment,” Amrhein said.

As of this writing, laying of the water main on Walnut, which will service Mills Lawn School and homes on South Walnut Street and a few houses on Elm Street, is nearly complete and will be put in service once it is pressure tested. The old water main will then be abandoned. The Short Street section is also on the verge of being connected to the Walnut Street main and the hydrant on Xenia avenue. That line has already been tested. Hook up to the school is scheduled for this Saturday, Sept. 22. Once the waterline is fully connected, curbs and curb cuts will be made and the paving will start.

Mills Lawn School Principal Christine Hatton said the dust from the construction in front of the school has been a problem. According to Hatton, the parents of one child asked that he be kept indoors for recess. However, they have not been keeping the rest of the students inside. Some of the teachers have been sneezing as a result of being outside with the kids, she said.

Amrhein said he has received a number of complaints about the dust from the Walnut Street project. If it rains, he said, the dirt will wash down the storm drains and nature will have solved the problem. However, since the soil on that street is mostly clay, he found that, when the Village attempted to wet it down by spraying with a tanker truck, workers ended up just spreading the mud around, resulting in a dangerously slippery condition.

The contractor for the Walnut Street project bid $317,000 to do the job. That came in below the $365,000 estimate of the Village’s engineers.

Amrhein is pleased with the work of both contractors. Demmy Construction, which is doing the Walnut Street project, has been very cooperative in timing their work so as to interfere as little as possible with the start and end of the school day, he said. The John R. Jurgenson Company, which is doing the resurfacing around the village, has been careful during the milling process not to damage the loop detectors for the traffic lights that are buried just inches under the road surface. Both companies have been working on Saturdays in order to finish the work as soon as possible, he said.

As for the orange cones and flag people, who seem to be everywhere, he has had some complaints, he said, but everyone is getting through. Amrhein suggests that drivers use their turn signals, so those directing traffic will know where they want to go. Those with complaints should direct them to Amrhein at 767-3702 and not to the contractors, he said.

“I want to thank everyone for their patience and cooperation,” Amrhein said.

Contact: vhervey@ysnews.com