Summer roadwork kicks off in Watervliet
WATERVLIET, N.Y. » With the warm summer weather here, city officials are eager to start roadwork and other outdoor improvements around the city.
Right after the Fourth of July, Gallo Construction of Watervliet, kicked off the summer work with some road resurfacing. City officials said nine sections of streets within the city including the entire length of 13th Street and 24th Street will be resurfaced and repaved.
Other streets included in the project are Second Street between Broadway and Second Avenue, Fourth Avenue between Fifth Street and Seventh Street, Fifth Avenue between Fourth Street and Second Street, 13th Street between Third Avenue and Eighth Avenue, 12th Street between Eighth Avenue and Ninth Avenue, Fifth Avenue between 16th Street and 19th Street, 10th Avenue between 19th Street and 25th Street, Eighth Avenue between 19th Street and 25th Street and 24th Street between Broadway and 12th Avenue.
The road resurfacing work is expected to take place until Friday July 14 and then on July 17 Gallo Construction will begin the water work that is funded in part by a drinking water grant from the state Environmental Facilities Corp. and the Department of Health and that project is expected to go through the summer.
In August 2016, city officials were notified that they were awarded $2,262,384 for a project with a total cost of $3,770,640. Mayor Michael Manning said the city financed its roughly $1.5 million share of the
cost.
The water infrastructure project calls for $256,573 to be spent to find and fix any possible leaks in transmission lines and provide better access to the transmission main that runs from the city’s reservoir in Guilderland to its filtration plant on Route 155 in Latham. Another $387,589 is earmarked for rehabilitation of the standpipe water tower at the northwest corner of the city, including cleaning and repainting the tower, as well as other upgrades.
Manning said that the roadwork and water project should not cause any major delays or road closures.
“The paving hasn’t forced any significant closures, a lot of the streets are wide enough that we can do half and half and they are shorter runs, since they are mostly side streets,” said Manning. “Any road closures we are marking the streets beforehand and putting the flyers on the doors for residents, mostly for parking, not so much for traffic.”
City officials are also pleased that Gallo Construction came in significantly as the lowest bidder on both summer projects since they believe it will be easier to transition from project to project with one company.
“It helps because now we only have to deal with one company for everything,” explained Manning. “When you’re working with the lowest bidder, it’s very convenient to only have to work with one contractor and one point of contact.”
Additional roads will be done as part of this project during the second phase, which will happen between April 2018 and October 2018.
Besides being able to get roadwork and water infrastructure projects done during the summertime, the city’s Department of Public Works has also already been busy with clearing brush in alleys and trimming trees in the city’s recreational parks.
“Some of the trees are too big for their location and they become more of nuisance then a help, the ones that are overgrown in the parks could cause safety issues and also could prevent the police and public safety seeing into the park,” said Manning. “There are just other general things that need to be done to keep the city looking neat.”