Large pavement project planned for 10th Ave.

ANTIGO — City officials hosted an engineering consulting firm for a public involvement meeting Wednesday night. At the meeting, the firm and officials discussed plans to replace essentially all of 10th Ave. in 2026.

The project will replace pavement, curbs, storm sewer inlets and driveway aprons, as well as add bicycle lanes along each side of 10th Ave. and modify curb ramps to comply with American Disabilities Act (ADA) standards.

Mindy Gardner, a senior project manager from the Green Bay-based project consulting firm Ayres Associates, gave the meeting’s main presentation about the scope of the planned roadwork. Though estimated to last somewhere from five to seven months, the project will take place in two stages — half at a time, starting with either the east or west side of 10th Ave. — and will not include the Highway 45 intersection.

“We have a project gap at U.S. Highway 45 there, so we’re not doing any work in the Highway 45 intersection,” Gardner said. “We stop a few 100 feet west of it, and we pick up a few hundred feet east of it.”

The project’s estimated cost is approximately $2,700,000. The city will pay for 20 percent of that total, while the other 80 percent will be covered by a Surface Transportation Program-Urban (STP-U) Grant, a federal grant the city was awarded that is administered through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT).

“Only certain roads were able to apply for that particular grant, and this was one of them,” Public Works Department Head Charley Brinkmeier said. “There are different classifications of roadways within the city and this happened to be what they considered a collector roadway. So it’s a collector roadway versus a residential streetway, and all of our other collectors are in pretty decent shape.”

According to Craig Schuh, an engineering services manager with Ayres, several features of the project — including a meeting like Wednesday’s held far in advance of ground being broken — were requirements of the grant.

“Because of those dollars being tied to the Wisconsin DOT and Federal Highway Administration, there’s certain criteria that are part of those dollars, so this public information meeting is one of those requirements that needs to be done along with the pedestrian accommodation, the bicycle route designation — those are all requirements that come with those federal dollars that you were awarded,” Schuh said.

After new concrete aprons are poured in front of driveways, residents in those homes will not have access to their driveways for one to two weeks while the concrete cures and will need to park on the street.

Some 10th Ave. residents in attendance Wednesday expressed worries that their vehicles might become trapped in their driveways once the concrete aprons are poured, but Brinkmeier assured them ample notice will be given.

“Typically what happens is, right before they pour concrete, if they pour on Tuesday, the contractor’s going to be there on Monday knocking on your door saying, ‘Get your vehicles out of the garage. We’re coming through and you’re not getting them out on Tuesday,’” Brinkmeier said, before going on to explain that some type of handwritten notice would also be posted on doorways or inside mailboxes.

The Ayres representatives also explained a sophisticated computer program they used to determine the thickness of replacement pavement when questioned by attendees whether the new road would be constructed to endure traffic from the large amount of heavy load-bearing vehicles which commonly use 10th Ave.

“The Wisconsin DOT has a pavement design program that we put in the pavement that’s there existing, the gravel thickness. We put what the subbase is, what the existing material is even below that gravel, put in what the traffic volumes are, the percentage of trucks — and it gives a suggested typical section,” Schuh said. “This typical section that we’re planning to use is very similar to the existing that’s there right now.”

Only one area at the northwest corner of 10th and Dorr St. — which would likely be less than five square feet and is needed to construct sidewalk and curb ramps — may need to be permanently acquired by the city. Likewise, temporary limited easements will be needed at some spots along the corridor.

“Those are just needed for during construction,” Gardner said of the temporary limited easements, temporary acquisitions which will be conducted from the winter of 2024 to the fall of 2025. “So for example if we are replacing part of the sidewalk, even though we’re not building the sidewalk further onto the property, we need to actually step onto the property or maybe some of the grass would be uprooted and we would be replacing the grass for those.”

Gardner said much of the gutter system would also be replaced as part of the construction.

“If you’re looking at a roadway’s curb and gutter, the big square grate where the storm water goes into, most of those structures will be replaced, along with the leads that connect the inlets to the storm sewer main,” she said. “None of the main is being replaced, but the majority of those inlets that actually catch the stormwater, most of those are going to be replaced.”

The far west portion of the road near Antigo High School will be completed in the summer of 2026 when school is out of session.

Brinkmeier characterized the 10th Ave. pavement replacement project as one that will impact many in the community, saying that parts of the road have not been fixed for well over two decades.

“We’ve had parts of the road from the 90s, probably back even to the 80s on this one, so it’s all over the board. Some of that stuff on the far east end is probably some of our oldest and roughest part of 10th Ave.,” Brinkmeier said. “Obviously, it’s a major thoroughfare with the school on one end and the city limits going out to the Town of Antigo on the other.”

Further project details will be discussed at future city council meetings as 2026 nears.