WESTOVER — Barring any severe weather setbacks, construction on Westover’s long-awaited Holland Avenue project is set to begin in less than a month.
So, it came as a bit of surprise to members of Westover City Council on Tuesday to learn that the work will not be limited to overnight hours, as they’ve believed for nearly a year now.
“The DOH is allowing them to do 24-hour work, and that’s the plan. I actually met with them last Tuesday in our office in Bridgeport to go over their construction schedule. So, they plan on starting either the 10th or the 17th of March. Now, depending on the weather, it may be pushed back,” Thrasher’s Casey Young explained. “Their plan is to do most of the pipe work throughout the day, and then do restoration concrete work like that at nighttime. They have to keep one lane open. It’s required by the DOH.”
Large commercial vehicles will be detoured using Long Street, Mon Boulevard and Dunkard Avenue.
When Mayor Bob Lucci said he was surprised to hear about the around-the-clock work plan, Young explained the DOH actually signed off on it prior to the bid opening in September.
“They’ve got 90 days to do it, which is a very tight timeframe,” Young said of the project. “We want to push them a little bit; make sure they’re in and out but still following the specifications and regulations that are required of us by the DOH.”
Blue Gold Development LLC was awarded a $2,963,637 contract for the work on Sept. 3.
The project will address the thoroughfare’s underlying issues by replacing approximately 2,800 feet of gravity sewer line and 3,000 feet of storm sewer line beneath the road’s surface. It will also include the rehabilitation of the Holland Avenue retaining wall.
The city, Thrasher and Blue Gold Development are still ironing out the details of a lighting and beautification component the city would like to see included.
The project will run from the area of River Road to the top of the Hill.
“Right now their plan is to do one lane all the way to the top, then come back and do the second lane. I don’t know if they’ll be able to do that because once you make the turn up the hill, everything starts kind of crisscrossing in there,” Young said, referencing the underlying pipes. “That’s the game plan right now, but when they start opening the trench up it may turn into a completely different story.”
As for the post-project resurfacing of Holland Avenue, the state initially said it planned to come in after the fact and completely resurface the road once the underlying issues were dealt with.
Young said there is milling and paving work included in the contract with Blue Gold.
Councilor Duane Tatar asked Young to clarify exactly who is doing what.
Two scenarios the city is trying to avoid are, one, Blue Gold finishes the project and fully resurfaces the road and the state shows up to redo it, or, two, Blue Gold puts down a base layer at the end of the project but there’s an extended delay waiting on the state to finish the resurfacing.
The DOH told The Dominion Post in January that once the project is complete, the disturbed area will receive a full-depth repair, and the entire area will be resurfaced.
