End of street, sidewalk work only weeks away

Street repairs in the City of Port Washington are expected to wrap up this month, Public Works Director Rob Vanden Noven said Tuesday.

Although there were some initial delay sdue to the gas line relocation on Park Street, Vanden Noven said contractors have been working steadily to complete the project.

This week, he said, contractors were to begin paving the affected streets on the city’s north side, such as Beutel Road, Frances and Grant streets and Merry Court, should be paved beginning this week.

Barnich Road and Sauk Drive will be prepped this week and paved after that, with Park Street to follow. The last to be paved will be Pierre and Orchard lanes.

Work on Lake Street will be done this fall.

The Board of Public Works recently added alley repairs to the schedule for this summer, hiring Forward Equipment of Grafton to fix roughly a quarter-mile of alleys.

“I was a little bit nervous when I put this out for bids because of increasing construction costs,” Vanden Noven told the Board of Public Works June 21.

Forward Equipment’s bid of $142,000 is less than the $201,000 budgeted for alley improvements, he said.

The alleys to be repaired this year include intersection alleys between Sherman and Grand avenues and Spring and Madison streets, those between Crocker and Garfield streets south of Melin, and alleys east of Lakeview and north of Prospect.

Because the bid is lower than expected, Vanden Noven said, the city is also going to repair the alley between Second and Third avenues west of Spring Street.

The street department may also pave the Lakeview/Prospect alley and perhaps the alley between Third and Fourth avenues west of Spring Street, he said.

Vanden Noven told the board that the city has about five miles of alleys, four of which are in good or satisfactory condition.

About one mile of alleys are in need of significant repair, he said.

Ald. Mike Gasper, a member of the board, questioned why handicapped ramps were not included in the alley repairs on Lakeview Avenue.

That road is likely to be reconstructed in the next five years, and they would be added at that time, Vanden Noven said.

The board also agreed to hire Gremmer and Assoc. to design the roads to be included in the 2023 street reconstruction program at a cost of $130,500.

The streets to be designed include Washington Street from Franklin Street to Lake Street, Monroe Street from Wisconsin Street to Nelson Drive, Nelson from James Drive to Whitefish Avenue, Benjamin and Webster streets from Whitefish Road to Monroe Street and all of Scott Road.

Vanden Noven said that while Washington Street will be designed, it may not be rebuilt next year because the new Inventor’s Brewpub will be under construction then.

But since there are ductile pipes under the road and the street is in poor condition, this is a good time to design it “so we have it in hand to do once Inventor’s is built,” he said.

Monroe and Nelson are heavily traveled because they’re near schools, he said, and there’s a history of water main breaks near Webster Street, which is in poor condition, Vanden Noven said.

Vanden Noven noted that the city had previously said it would focus on the area around Parknoll, Parkview and Jacque lanes next year, but studies have shown they may need to increase the size of the sanitary sewer on Parkview to support future north-side development.

That work will likely be delayed until there’s more certainty about that development, he said.