The 2100 block of Industrial Drive will close Tuesday morning, remaining closed for up to 22 days to allow work on a collapsed pipe.
Public Works Director Roger Schwartze said work on the street starts Monday, but it will close at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday to allow crews to dig up the street for work on the stormwater pipe. Because the area has other utilities buried there, including two water lines, a sewer line and a gas line, Schwartze said the project will take a bit longer than usual for replacing a pipe. He said the contract stipulates the road can be closed for 22 days, but work underneath the railroad only can go on for four days.
The collapsed pipe is actually under the Union Pacific railroad, and negotiations with the railroad is what delayed the project. Schwartze said more than $20,000 is being contributed from the railroad for the project, which has a $111,000 price tag.
"We've been working with the railroad for quite some time," Schwartze said.
The contract for the work has gone to the Twehous Excavating Company, which was the low bidder on the project.
The work will be done near the entrance to Fire Station No. 3, but Schwartze said the department will have access to its driveway. However, trucks will not be able to go west, they will have to travel east from the station.
Striping projects around city
The city also has recently restriped several Y intersections throughout town to help increase safety and make it clear to drivers where the stopping or yielding points are.
Britt Smith, operations division director, said the striping at intersections such as West Main Street and High Street, and Boonville Road and Hayselton Drive, tries to highlight more clearly where drivers should be.
"There was some concerns about those particular intersections," Smith said. "Disorganization sometimes leads to potential accidents."
Though no accidents led to the change in striping, Smith said there were concerns about a "lack of control." The issue was discussed several months ago, but he said the city waited to do the striping until the end of the year so it wouldn't interfere in other projects.
At the intersection of West Main Street and Brooks Street also, Smith said the city used a relatively new technique, what he called "a shark's tooth," which is more like a series of small triangles. The marking signals a yielding line, similar to the large white bar used at stop signs, to show where a car should stop when yielding to another vehicle, he said.
Smith said the striping was done throughout the last couple of weeks and the city has received suggestions for at least two other intersections on the east end of town that could use additional striping.