The $1.2M error that stalled Salisbury Street work
Plus, why there won’t be a Lafayette parade this Memorial Day
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Work starts next week on Grant Street, with plans to install new stormwater sewers and reconstruct the road that runs by West Lafayette Jr.-Sr. High School, between Meridian and Salisbury streets. Based on street closures the city’s board of works approved Tuesday, the work will start May 31 and get done by Aug. 7 – a schedule designed to not overlap with West Side’s school year.
The project is part of the Salisbury Street redevelopment project, which had been slowed considerably recently after starting in fall 2021 before running into design errors in 2022.
Crews were working, again, this week on sections dug up earlier, this time pulling up water and sewer lines to prepare to reinstall them along a future trail that eventually will run along Grant and Salisbury, from Northwestern Avenue to Kalberer Road.
The problem: The first run at the work left some curbs a foot-and-a-half too close to the road, leaving one lane too narrow, Larry Oates, president of the West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission, said.
How that happened, whether it was a surveying error or a miscalculation in the design, isn’t clear, Oates said. He said that instead of fighting over the blame now, the city and the contractors agreed to fix the problems and settle who was responsible later.
“If we left this to the insurance companies, we’d be sitting on this project, doing nothing, for another year,” Oates said. “We all knew we needed to get going.”
On May 11, the redevelopment commission agreed to add $1.25 million to the original $7 million cost. The redevelopment commission also made the change order contingent on the city maintaining the right to go after that money later, once everyone settled on the cause of the do-over.
The project is expected to continue through the 2022 construction season, according to the city.
The speed of Salisbury Street work, which included narrowed lanes and occasional one-lane restrictions, has been conspicuous, as other north-south routes in and near West Lafayette go under construction this spring, too.
North River Road: West Lafayette closed River Road, from Dehart Street to Happy Hollow Road, last week. The city is settling in for an extended closure, too, for the $13.9 million Dehart Combined Sewer Overflow Project, which includes a 15-by-15-foot tunnel under River Road that is designed to collect and store 1.7 million gallons of stormwater during heavy rains to give the city’s wastewater treatment plant time to process sewage instead of having it overflow directly into the Wabash River. This first road closure will run through Oct. 28. For detour maps and updates on the project, check: www.riverroadcso.com
Yeager Road: On Tuesday, the city’s board of works agreed to restrict lanes on Yeager Road, between Sagamore Parkway West to Cumberland Avenue, starting June 6. The $2.7 million Yeager Road project will include stormwater improvements, road widening, a 10-foot-wide asphalt trail, plus sidewalk work.
This and that …
NO MEMORIAL DAY PARADE THIS YEAR: The Tippecanoe County Veterans Council will hold its annual Memorial Day observance and program at Columbian Park’s Memorial Plaza, starting at 1 p.m. Monday, May 30. Tim Hilton, in his final year with the Tippecanoe County Veterans Council, will be the featured speaker on a day that also will include the dedication of a Medal of Honor monument on the recently completed renovation of Memorial Island.
But this year will not feature a Memorial Day Parade. In 2021 Lafayette City Clerk Cindy Murray organized the 2021 parade after veterans groups informed the city that they were more focused on the observance at the park. Last year, the city also renewed a July Fourth parade, following a similar route up Main Street, from Alabama Street to Columbian Park. Murray said the city would do that again in 2022, with the Fourth of July parade applications coming soon to the city’s website.
LAWSUIT FOLLOWS VETO OVERRIDE ON TRANSGENDER BILL: The Indiana House and Indiana Senate made short work Tuesday of Gov. Eric Holcomb’s veto of House Bill 1041, a ban on transgender girls playing girls sports in the state. And the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana wasted no time, either, almost immediately filing a lawsuit challenging the law on behalf of a 10-year-old looking to play softball at her Indianapolis Public Schools school. Here’s one report, via Indianapolis Star reporter Arika Herron, on the lawsuit. For more on the veto override, here’s a link for that, too.
Thanks to today’s sponsor, Duke Energy, which is proud to support Mental Health America-Wabash Valley Region’s “Let’s Talk” program. To support this program and ensure its continued success, follow this link, https://mhawv.org/lets-talk-impact/
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