(Red Oak) -- A major road reconstruction and closure is set to begin in Red Oak this week.
Meeting in regular session Monday night, the Red Oak City Council received an update from Street Superintendent Chris Baird on the Eastern Avenue Reconstruction project. Plans originally called for construction crews to arrive in May. However, Baird says the project's contractor and engineer, Snyder and Associates, advised the city earlier this month that crews are planning to arrive this week to begin the extensive surface and water main replacements starting at Summit Street and moving south to Forest Avenue.
"They'll be replacing the water main and running it down the east side and putting in new hydrants on the water main -- which I believe is six inches," said Baird. "What the plans are is as of tomorrow, it's going to be shut to through traffic, and (the contractor) will be here to start sawing the street and then Wednesday to Thursday, they'll starting removing concrete on the north end and take the east side out all the way down through and put in the new water main."
He adds the contractors estimate the water main replacement to take five weeks and then run services to the west side of the road. While the street will be closed to thru traffic, Baird says the western portion of the road will be open to residents living inside the project area. He says the contractors are hoping to allow driveway access consistently.
"So, they're guaranteeing us or trying to, that most times (residents) will be able to get there," he said. "We've arranged and talked that we could have some parking on Birchwood and Forest Avenue because it's about the only place for people to park as there's no alleys. It's probably one of the toughest street areas in town to have completely tore up."
Baird says the contractor has estimated 50-to-60 working days to complete the project and place down the new concrete, which he says they have rounded up to a roughly three-month project with anticipated delays due to weather.
Thus, during that time, he adds, they have worked with the contractors to make arrangements to ease the burden on the residents living along the impacted portion of Eastern Avenue.
"They're going to put cluster mail boxes -- and the contractor will take care of it -- on each end, and with fire, police, and rescue we're going to have to keep really good contact and keep a hard surface down in case something happens," Baird explained. "Trash collection is another thing, and you don't always think about all these things, but (the contractors) agreed that if you put it out in your yard by noon, they're going to take it to the ends themselves."
While the closures will create some frustrations, Baird says it will be worth it to have the rough surface and troublesome water main replaced. Regarding water outages, Baird says there should only be about an hour's worth of interruption for residents while they re-hook the services to the new water main. Anyone with further questions on the project is asked to contact city hall at 712-623-6510.
In other business, the council...
--Approved a resolution approving and adopting a revenue purpose statement for the use of revenue from a possible electric and natural gas franchise fee and set a public hearing on an ordinance establishing a franchise fee on electric and natural gas energy providers operations within the city of Red Oak for April 17th.
--Approved an amended Animal Alliance Agreement spelling out the respective fees for the city and updating the shelter's address.
--Approved the hiring of Tabatha Pierson as the city accounts payable clerk starting at $19.50 an hour.
--Approved the Red Oak Rotary Club's use of Foundation Square Park on April 8th for the Annual Easter Egg Hunt.
--Approved a street closure request for the Red Oak Police and Fire Department pancake breakfast on April 8th at Five One 8 from 8 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. Street closures include 4th Street between Coolbaugh and Reed Streets starting at 7:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m.
