Plymouth’s fall street and sidewalk projects are set to get underway today. Parking restrictions may be in effect on Washington, Alexander, and Ewing Streets at various times while work is taking place. City Engineer Rick Gaul told the board of works last week that contractor Phend & Brown plans to complete the work by November 12.
Gaul also gave board members an update on plans for improvements to the intersection of Oakhill, Soice, and Michigan Streets, near Webster Elementary School. “It’s possible we will not have to acquire any extra right-of-way,” he said. “One area we might be acquiring right-of-way from is from the school. And essentially what that is, is that a majority of Soice Street’s on school property already. We’ll be lining up the westbound lanes on Oakhill, the eastbound lanes from Oakhill to Soice will be lined up, and we’ll be putting a right-hand turn in going to the north.” That project will include the installation of a traffic signal.
Gaul and other city officials have also recently been discussing the city’s future Hoham Drive reconstruction project with the Indiana Department of Transportation. INDOT awarded the city $2.14 million in federal transportation funds for the project, which is scheduled to take place in 2021 or 2022.
Gaul said that in the past, INDOT provided all the funding for a project at once, but now, the city has to request money at three different stages in the project. He said that in order to make that funding process a bit easier, the city has opted to take part in a pilot program with INDOT. “They’ll prepare the RFP,” Gaul explained. “We’ll be selecting the preliminary engineer with them. They will be doing negotiating. We’d have to concur with the negotiations. And essentially what that will do is that will keep us working with INDOT all the time before we start asking for more money. One of my concerns is we go and ask for more money, and they say, ‘Oh, you’re asking for too much.’ This way, if we’re working with them and they’re working with us in a situation, I feel that we should be, possibly, better in line.”
In other business, Utility Superintendent Donnie Davidson reported that work was wrapping up on the Boys & Girls Club Sanitary Sewer Relocation project, with the substantial completion date being set for November 15. Meanwhile, the Randolph Street Water Main Project was about 50-percent complete, as of last Monday. Davidson said the contractor hoped to be able to complete most of the work before the start of winter.
