Second Avenue plans Property owners and others looked over engineer In the midst of five foot high snow drifts and bitter wind chills, Staples residents know they have something to look forward to in five months or so - road construction.

Minnesota’s other season will be a memorable one around Staples in 2010, as the city’s core business district, the former two lane Highway 10 route through the city, will be torn up.

Not since 1948, when two ribbons of thick concrete were poured the length of the city, has the city’s residents and businesses seen their lives disrupted with this stretch of road torn up. In addition, two blocks of Fourth Street, one block north and south of the old Highway 10 signal lights, plus other streets, will go under the backhoe as part of this project.

Engineer Timothy Houle, with the Widseth, Smith, Nolting firm described the project Wednesday night, Jan. 6, at the third and final open house to inform property owners and others about the project.

“There will be dust and noise, they’re going to have to ‘chunk out’ the concrete pavement and mill off the asphalt. Then they will be trenching out for water and sewer, there will be deep trenches at times. It will look like a mess for a while,” he said.

The project very likely will uncover some items not seen for many years, such as old fuel oil tanks forgotten long ago after natural gas came into use. “We anticipate we’ll uncover pipes or tanks nobody knows are down there.”

He stressed that weekly construction meetings will be held to inform local people of the progress and problems they may be having due to the street work. As much as possible, engineers will try to keep people from being surprised. There will be times when water may be shut off, or their sewer lines disconnected, both temporary and as short a time span as possible, Houle said.

Along with water, sewer, curb and gutter, streets and sidewalks, there will be gas and telephone lines under the ground to be concerned with. Building owners may want to put in special larger water pipes for adding a fire suppressing sprinkler system in the future, Houle noted.

The streetscaping or landscaping work along the new street has been and continues to be the most contentious part of the project. Some property owners in the commercial area have opposed some of the streetscaping due to the extra cost.

Tim Wold, with the SRF engineering firm, described street amenities to be added as very durable. They plan to provide trees, tree grates, steel trash receptacles, bike racks and benches along the roadway. There will be approximately four trees for each side of each block in the commercial areas and six trees for each side of the street in the residential area. Concrete planters that can be moved indoors in the winter will be located along the commercial area boulevards.

Where there are now retaining walls, new retaining walls will be constructed of a uniform block. Several items, such as wall caps for the retaining walls, concrete decorative pavers (bricks) to be located at intersections, screen fences and precast concrete piers will be bid as alternates. If the price is low enough, they may be included in the project. The engineers have provided for four trees per each side of the block, and that may be reduced to two. Some owners, such as Pete Brenny, do not want any trees in front of their place. Colleen Donnelly who owns the Batcher building, said more trees are nicer.

Houle said work will be done on the old highway right of way and added that the city also wants to do work on side streets including 2nd Street (Burger King to the high school corner), 9th Street,11th and 12th Streets. Second Street from Second to Third Avenue will be torn up to do storm drainage work, with drainage work also will done at 9th, 11th and 12th, The latter work will not extend more than a half block north of Second Avenue.

Cost of the project is being split between state, county and city funding, with special assessments for abutting property owners for their portion of the project according to city policy.

Special assessments will be used to pay for curb and gutter and other portions of the project. In addition property owners can expect to pay a $35 per front foot assessment for streetscaping. They will have to pay for any new water or sewer service lines as well. Houle estimated a cost of $2,300 for residential water and sewer lines and $3,100 for commercial lines. The exact cost won’t be known until bids are received and awarded.