Austin planning three sets of major road construction projects

Published 12:00 am Thursday, May 2, 2002

Summer is the season of long, lazy days; cold glasses of iced tea; swimming pools and of course, road construction projects.

Fortunately for Austin residents, there won't be too many orange barrels, detours and road blocks to contend with this year.

Assistant city engineer Steve Lang says the city has planned three sets of major projects which are expected to be completed by the end of the construction season.

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The project that will affect the most people will be the rehabilitation of concrete pavement on West Oakland Avenue from Main Street to 12th Street SW.

Lang says the city plans to spend $350,000 of Municipal State Aid funds to "fix areas that have deteriorated such as at the joints where the concrete is popping out and then we'll grind it down to restore the smooth ride."

These improvements should take "a month to a month and a half to complete and we hope to get started in mid-May," Lang says.

The street will be reduced to one lane of traffic and "the speed limit will be decreased to 20 miles per hour … we're hoping that by decreasing the speed, it will give people more time to react if someone pulls out in front of them, whether it's a piece of construction equipment or someone pulling out of a business," he says. Though signs and barrels will be in place to warn drivers of the construction, Lang says people should still be on the lookout for concrete trucks and other work equipment in the area.

In June, Lang says the city should begin work on replacing the asphalt on Sixth Avenue SE from Fourth Street SE to Ninth Street SE) with new asphalt. The road also be widened from 36 feet to 32 feet and the storm sewers will be replaced.

In conjunction with this project, new asphalt will be laid and the curbs and gutters will be rehabilitated on Ninth Street SE from Sixth Avenue SE to Eighth Avenue SE and on Fifth Place SE from Ninth Street SE to 10th Street SE. Additionally, because these areas also have drainage problems, Lang says storm sewers will be put in "to take care of standing water."

This second set of projects is expected to take two and a half to three months, Lang predicts and will cost $400,000 which will come from assessment bonds.

Construction work in these southeast Austin areas will result in the closing of the streets being repaired, except to residents of those streets.

The third major road construction project within the city will be the rehabilitation of Eight Street SW from First Avenue SW to Ninth Avenue SW and Third Avenue SW from Seventh Street to 12th Street SW.

On Eight Street SW, Lang says the concrete street will be replaced with another concrete street and the storm sewers will be repaired.

Residents of Third Avenue SW will see their concrete street replaced with an asphalt surface. The existing curb and gutter systems will be salvaged, "which allows us to salvage the grass boulevards and saves property owners quite a bit of money," Lang says.

While the Eighth Street SW project is expected to begin in June, the Third Street project isn't expected to begin until August, because the Third Street construction can't begin until the Eighth Street project is finished, he says.

The Eighth Street SW rehabilitation is expected to cost approximately $750,000 and the Third Avenue SW rehabilitation is estimated at $225,000 for a total cost of $975,000. Of that total, $700,000 will be paid by Municipal State Aid and $275,000 will be paid through assessment bonds.

During the construction in these areas, streets will be closed to all traffic except residents.

Kevin Maxa, engineering services supervisor at Austin Utilities, says the utilities company has plans to work on several projects during the city's construction this summer.

On Eighth Street SW, Maxa says Austin Utilities will be replacing gas mains and repairing water mains. On Third Avenue SW, the utilities company plans to replace the water mains and do some minor electrical work. On Sixth Avenue SE, Maxa says the water mains will be replaced and the electrical poles will be relocated along Ninth Street SE.

Maxa assures customers that "any service outages will be relatively minor or short. We try to do those things during the day so fewer people will be inconvenienced and we try to notify everyone."

He explains Austin Utilities tries to coordinate their projects with the city's road construction projects because "it looks silly if the city does a project and then we come in two years later and rip it all up."

"We go a long way to try to minimize the inconvenience to customers. Most of the people who work at Austin Utilities are homeowners around town and we don't want our yards torn up and our utilities to be out as much as everyone else," he says.

Amanda L. Rohde can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at :mailto:amanda.rohde@austindailyherald.com