Day 30; Lakewood at Beach Info

I think considerable progress was made again today. The weather, when it cooperates, can help make construction go smoothly. Though, too dry of conditions also makes construction dusty. That said, if your home is in the vicinity of the construction areas, you may want to keep windows closed to minimize the dust getting into your home.

Here is a summary of the progress today.

• Storm sewer continued down Kensington in the 300 block and they are nearing the intersection with Cambridge.
• Sanitary sewer work began on the 100 block of Cambridge, starting in the Kensington intersection. There was a new sanitary man hole/structure put in place in the middle of that intersection. Then, about 75' of sanitary line was put in place heading back into Cambridge Rd.
• At the end of the day, that sanitary sewer crew had to replace/repair a water main shut of valve that was leaking in that same intersection. Many homes received phone calls in the Kensington/Woodland Circle area regarding the water shut off. This was unplanned but we did what we could to notice residents. That was good; what was bad was that when the calls were made around 4:15pm, we anticipated that the contractor was ready to have the water shut off. Residents were prepped that water should be turned back on by 5:30pm; unfortunately, the contractor was not ready to have the water shut off until after 6pm.......DRAT!! That frustrates US, so I am sure it is disheartening for homeowners as well. Sorry for that inconvenience.
• Down the street further on Kensington, residential water service connections continued. As of right now, we only have water tested and cleared a bit south of the Oxford intersection with Kensington. Until we get the lab reports back on the water tests for the water main further south, we can not continue service connections. But, we hope to get those back soon.....samples have already been submitted to the lab for testing.

Finally, discussions with the contractor are leading us to believe that next week and the week after, crews may be in the vicinity of Lakewood Blvd/Fisk Place near the Beach making the connections of the Storm Sewer to the outfall at the beach. They also must complete a fairly substantial Sanitary Sewer Re-work in that intersection. I dont know how this will affect traffic just yet; but it may be substantial. Stay tuned for more information.

Day 29

I will be to the point to catch you up on progress since last Thursday.

Crews did the best they could to prep the roads before the weekend. I was in Village on Saturday for the Walk for Courage and found standing water on Kensington, but very passable. Please remember that with no road pavement, storm water does not have any place to run. Thus, rain is not always our friend in dealing with construction zones.

UPDATES:

• Residential service installations are in the 250 or so block of Kensington; this is several houses south of Cambridge and just 2-3 houses north of Oxford.
• Last Friday, water main reached Roxbury on Kensington so they went as far as they could. Those mains were filled with water on Friday and now they are working to get the water tested/passed. This allows the residential service crew to continue making progress all the way to Roxbury.
• Roxbury will have to be the last street to have water main installed, otherwise we would isolate Woodland Circle with no water.
• On TUESDAY (tomorrow), please note that Sanitary Sewer work will begin on CAMBRIDGE. This work will last all of this week. Those of you living on CAMBRIDGE will find "No Parking" signs. Plan on this street as NOT being available for traffic during the construction day.
• Storm sewer is continuing southbound on Kensington. That crew is approaching the intersection with Cambridge and Woodland Circle. As they make more progress southbound, the road crew will again begin to rebuild the roads. If you recall, right now Fisk, the 400 block of Kensington, and 5-6 houses south on Kensington in the 300 block have road rebuilt with rock.

Please stay in touch.

DAY 25; Thursday 4/29

We had a construction meeting this morning (Thursday) and we discussed with the Contractor about notices to residents when driveways were going to be blocked. We had a few examples where people were not notified as trucks and construction moved in front of their driveways. However, if you find yourself in your house, do not hesitate to walk out and ask one of the crew to assist you in getting out. They will make a path and guide you out.

Work consisted of more services on Kensington and they have progressed to the Cambridge/Woodland Circle intersection.

There may on occasion be unforseen shut off of water. Ideally those will only be for a short duration.

Day 24; Wow, now THAT is a Big Hole!!

Today sure seemed as if there was just work and progress being made everywhere.

The Storm pipes were completed in the 400 block of Kensington, so that crew joined another crew working on installation of services in the 300 block. They are trying to get far enough down the block with residential services so that one of the crews can go back and start progress on the storm system heading south on Kensington.

So, this is where that BIG HOLE came in to play today. Let me first explain the process. In front of each home, is a water line that connects the home to the water main. There is also a water shut off valve that allows the Village to shut off water to individual homes if needed. Each home in the project zone will have that water shut off valve replaced with a new one as they are connected to the new main.

In the 300 block of Kensington today, one of the old water shut off vales was in a path that took it under some very important root structures of a fairly large and substantial tree. In order to save that root structure, the crew conducting the service connections had to create a new path to get connected to the home's water service line. To accomplish this route, a substantial hole into the front lawn of one of the homes was needed. And let me tell you, it was a BIG hole.....I've never seen a residential water connection need such a large trench to get a good connection. Now, it really was not bigger than big holes in the street, but into the front lawn of a home...that was big!!

While still thinking about this aspect of the project, renewal of the grass surfaces that are disturbed will be completed with grass seed. In 2005, we used sod to renew surfaces, but what we found was that sod was not as durable as grass seed would be. In several cases, homeowners did not take ownership of the new sod and it died and caused much re-work. Grass seed allows for a bit less care and really in the long run, becomes a better surface.

Elsewhere in the Village, Water main intallation continued down Kensington into the 200 block south of Oxford. I did not make it down there at the end of the day to see how far they ended up.

Also, the road crew rebuilding Fisk completed that street and they moved over to the 400 block of Kensington and was getting some rock installed there. I also did not get down there at the end of the day to be able to give you a full report of where they ended up.

Once the service connections are far enough down Kensington, the crew working storm sewer installation will go back and pick that up in the interseciton of Kensington, Fisk and Woodland circle. So far, the new storm goes down Fisk from Lakewood, turns and goes north into the 400 block of Kensington where it ends. We are working to begin installation southbound on Kensington, south of the Fisk intersection. They also need to get across Lakewood and install over to the Lake outfall. We need to wait until the DNR issues our permit after May 3rd to do that work.

Here is an update I sent to a resident on the upper bluff construction status...:

We are still in a DNR/State Historical Society imposed delay for the upper bluff and for the MBCC pond project. Also, we are still in a 30 day waiting period for our permit to be issued for the beach storm outfall. That beach outfall will be/should be issued next week.

The consultant we have hired for the burial issues has been authorized by the DNR and Historical Society to do exploratory digs in the upper bluff where needed and we will be taking core samples from the pond site that will analyzed. Once information/data is collected from those exercises, reports will be furnished to the DNR and Historical Society to hopefully convince them that we are OK to construct. My optimistic estimate is that we are probably still 4 weeks away from getting those permits issued to begin work in the upper bluff.

Day 23; Water off Water On

Many of you in the lower bluff were without water today as new connections were again made. The specific connection/tie-in was at the Oxford/Kensington intersection. That connection went well today and water was restored by late afternoon.

Many of you trying to gain access to the Village via Oxford (near the Village Center) are finding that intersection completely blocked. That will not change any time soon. Access into or out of the the Village will need to be made via Roxbury or Lakewood. If you are trying to get into the Village Center, then you can enter the Village via Oxford.

The completion of the tie in work has now allowed pipe crews to continue with water main installation south past Oxford on Kensington. I think they were only able to get a couple "sticks" (A stick is a 20' section of water main) south of Oxford today, but tomorrow, they should make good progress again. With good progress the next couple days, they could make it to Roxbury by the end of the week!!

Further north on Kensington, the storm system structures in the Kensington/Northern Woodland Circle intersection were put in place today. Additional storm work will be completed in this area so that the road crew can begin the road rebuild process in the 400 block of Kensington. That storm crew will then continue their work with the storm system into the 300 block of Kensington.

All of the homes in the 400 block of Kensington and several homes moving southbound in the 300 block of Kensington are now receiving water from the new water main system. An additonal crew will be in the Village starting on Wednesday to keep making those residential connections.

Each of these crews are completing alot of work each day so progress is pretty swift. Watch for a crew coming to the street near you!!!

Day 22; Rain & Road Construction.....

...really dont go very well together. It was a tough weekend with all of the rain, and specifically for those residents in the 300 Block of Kensington. The rain played havoc with their weekend plans and ability to enjoy the freedom of movement.

We talked with the Contractor today about some changes to the maintenance of the roadways to allow local traffic better and more assured access, especially during rain events. That said, the reality is that we may not be able to control all of the extraeneous environmental factors like the weather.

In work today, crews continued making the residential service connections. They are now in the 300 block of Kensington. Road crews spent a portion of the morning/day working to get roads passable again. The objective is to have Fisk Place and the 400 Block of Kensington, rocked and road prepped ready by the end of the week. The additional crew comes into town tomorrow so we will continued progress on water main in the 200 block of Kensington.

Day 19

Fisk reconstruction began. As a reminder, this reconstruction will only include the rock base to the road.
On the 400 block of Kensington, homes had their water services renewed to the new main.
There was no water main work completed as anticipated at the Oxford intersection. Instead, the pipe crew in Village worked on the water services.
Have a good weekend.