Check out NEW updates every week from Project Manager Ken Plowman!
MAY 26 UPDATE:
If you’ve been down 8th Street this past week you may have noticed significant changes. Despite the rainy weather, the crews poured the south curb line from 1st Ave to the west end of the project. The barricades at Highway 69 were removed and concrete pavement was placed on the east side of HWY 69. Once this pavement has sufficient strength we will open the inside eastbound lane at Hwy 69 to eliminate the shift across the intersection and keep traffic flowing smoothly. Water main crews worked on clean up items while sanitary cleanouts to Zersen Flooring and Phillips 66 were installed. Storm sewer crews made progress installing manholes at 3rd Avenue and are working their way east towards 4th Avenue.
The outside southbound lane of Highway 69 has been closed as crews began removing concrete near the intersection. The crews are scheduled to pour in new concrete pavement later next week and more curb and gutter is planned. Storm sewer crews will continue to install storm sewer from 3rd Avenue to 5th Avenue throughout the week. The south side of these intersections will be closed during storm installation but we will only close one intersection at a time and open back up as soon as possible.
As a reminder, due to the lane closures at Highway 69, truck traffic is not allowed to make right-turns in and out of the construction zone. If there are scheduled deliveries or if trucks are currently using this intersection, I advise using the designated truck route at 4th Avenue West and 6th Street. This will be a much easier maneuver and help avoid traffic backups.
Thank you all for your support this past week. Have a safe holiday weekend as we commemorate the brave men and women of our Military!
JESSE DUFF, PE I Sr. Project Engineer
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
1107 16th Avenue
Monroe, Wisconsin 53566
P: 608.329.6400
C: 608.636.3833
F: 608.325.2797
www.fehr-graham.com
KEN PLOWMAN I Senior Engineering Technician
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
1107 16th Avenue
Monroe, Wisconsin 53566
P: 608.329.6400
C: 815.238.0032
F: 608.325.2797
www.fehr-graham.com
MAY 19 UPDATE:
It has been another productive week on the 8th Street project despite the storms and rainy weather. The crews have completed water main tie-ins at 3rd Avenue and 5th Avenue and therefore have completed all the stage 1 water main work. This leaves the north side water main from 3rd Avenue to 7 ½ Street to be completed under stage 3 work. The water service to Dairy Queen and Phillips 66 have been switched onto the new water main. The team has also installed sanitary sewer cleanouts to Dairy Queen in preparation for the Sewer Lining to begin under Stage 2. The existing traffic signals at 4th Ave West have been removed and new underground conduit for both the road lighting and the traffic signals has begun to be installed throughout the project.
Next week will bring more sanitary sewer cleanout installations from Brennan’s to 3rd Avenue and storm sewer installation from 5th Ave to 2nd Ave. There are some rather large storm sewer structures that will be installed along the south curb so keep an eye out for the south closure of 3rd and 5th Avenues during this installation. We anticipate these closures to last 1-2 days and they will reopen as soon as possible.
We will also begin concrete repairs at the intersection of Highway 69 and therefore will be closing the outside southbound lane of Highway 69 starting Monday, May 22nd. Southbound traffic will continue to flow but traffic will be reduced to one lane during these repairs. This will make turning on and off 8th Street more difficult for truck traffic and therefore trucks will not be allowed to turn right at this intersection. Traffic control signs will be installed to notify drivers of this restriction but we encourage local businesses to plan accordingly for their deliveries. However, you should see some new concrete being poured later next week if the weather cooperates.
Please continue to drive careful through the construction zone. Thank you to all for your patience and help in making this a safe and productive week!
JESSE DUFF, PE I Sr. Project Engineer
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
1107 16th Avenue
Monroe, Wisconsin 53566
P: 608.329.6400
C: 608.636.3833
F: 608.325.2797
www.fehr-graham.com
KEN PLOWMAN I Senior Engineering Technician
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
1107 16th Avenue
Monroe, Wisconsin 53566
P: 608.329.6400
C: 815.238.0032
F: 608.325.2797
www.fehr-graham.com
MAY 12 UPDATE:
8th Street construction has continued to move forward this week with a lot of accomplishments. Dairy Queen, Phillips 66, and Zersen Flooring are now connected to the temporary water main while Keep’er Klean Car Wash and World Buffet have been switched over to the new main, as planned. This allowed a seamless installation of new pipe from 5th Avenue to 3rd Avenue to be completed with minimal service disruption to the businesses. The crew will be finishing up the main at 3rd Avenue today and will have much of the Stage 1 water main completed this week. Rock Road also had a productive week as they installed storm sewer in front of Dearth Motors from STH 69 to 5th Avenue. Red Arrow also began installing underground roadway lighting conduit in preparation for new decorative street lighting.
Next week the crews will concentrate on boring new water services to Dairy Queen, Phillips 66, and Zersen Flooring and connecting them to the newly installed main. The crew will also complete two short segments of water main at 5th Avenue and 3rd Avenue. Motorists may experience a short traffic delay near 3rd Avenue as the crews will need to flag traffic while installing water main; however, we will continue to keep traffic moving as safely as possible during this operation. Rock Road will focus their efforts next week installing storm sewer from 5th Avenue to 3rd Avenue and may begin placing new road base for paving. These two intersections will likely be closed during the pipe installation but will reopen as soon as possible.
A public informational meeting was held Thursday May 11th with a lot of positive feedback. We appreciate those who attended and will continue to take your suggestions into account as we move forward with the project.
As always, please feel free to contact Ken Plowman or myself with questions or concerns about the project. Stay safe and have a great week!
JESSE DUFF, PE I Sr. Project Engineer
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
1107 16th Avenue
Monroe, Wisconsin 53566
P: 608.329.6400
C: 608.636.3833
F: 608.325.2797
www.fehr-graham.com
KEN PLOWMAN I Senior Engineering Technician
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
1107 16th Avenue
Monroe, Wisconsin 53566
P: 608.329.6400
C: 815.238.0032
F: 608.325.2797
www.fehr-graham.com
MAY 5 UPDATE:
It’s been another productive week on the 8th Street project with multiple crews working throughout the corridor. Dane County Contracting bored new water services for Dunkin’ Donuts, Subway, McDonald’s, and Dearth Motors and connected them to the new water main. They also installed cleanouts on the sanitary services in preparation of sewer relining which is set to occur in the next construction stage. Rock Road Companies continued to remove the existing road base and place new stone making great progress through the intersections of 4th Ave West, 1st Ave, and 2nd Ave. They also brought storm castings up to grade in preparation of new curb & gutter and repaired the temporary drive surface at 6th Avenue West.
Next week will bring more underground work with temporary water service connections for Dairy Queen, Phillips 66, and Zersen Flooring. World Buffet and Keep’er Klean Car Wash water services are planned to be switched over to the new main early in the week. There will be short service interruptions while these services are tied in but we will continue to work with the businesses to limit disruptions. Once services are connected, Dane County will work to install new water main from 5th Avenue to 3rd Avenue. Rock Road will begin installing storm sewer from Highway 69 to 5th Avenue and Red Arrow will be onsite to install new underground conduit for traffic signals and roadway lighting.
As an effort to promote communication, we have scheduled a public informational meeting for 5 pm, Thursday, May 11th. The meeting will be held in the basement of the Behring Senior Center located at 1113 10th Street, Monroe. We encourage residents and businesses to attend as the contractor will give a short update on the project, upcoming work stages, and answer questions or concerns from the public.
Please continue to drive careful and keep your eye out for workers and construction equipment. Also, feel free to contact Ken Plowman or myself if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you all for another safe and successful week.
JESSE DUFF, PE I Sr. Project Engineer
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
1107 16th Avenue
Monroe, Wisconsin 53566
P: 608.329.6400
C: 608.636.3833
F: 608.325.2797
www.fehr-graham.com
MAY 1 UPDATE:
Dane County, who is the contractor installing the water main, had hoped to switch the water services to Dunkin Donuts, Subway, McDonalds, and Dearth to the new main last week. The rainy weather postponed this work with it being rescheduled for this week. Although this contractor couldn’t do the new water services they did make good progress installing water main between 1st Avenue and 7 ½ Street. This section of main is now ready for testing early this week.
Dane County will also be working on sanitary cleanouts to businesses from STH 69 to 5th Avenue which have their sewer lateral going out to 8th Street. This work will require the contractor to visit each business and come inside to locate the sewer laterals. The contractor will find your cleanout inside and run a steel tape down the lateral so that they can locate the direction it comes out of your building and toward the main under 8th Street. Once they have the sewer lateral located they can dig down and install a cleanout outside your building.
Rock Road was on site this last week removing the base that was under the old road and replacing this with better material. They completed this work from 1st Avenue to 6th Avenue West with 6th Avenue West being the only intersection completed so far. They will be working on 4th Avenue West and 1st Avenue intersections over the next week with some road closures to be expected on these two side roads. The contractor will not close two consecutive side roads at any time.
Over the next couple of weeks you will continue to see water main, storm sewer, and aggregate placement being the main items of work.
I am hoping these weekly updates are keeping everybody informed about the project but we are still planning on holding a few public involvement meetings throughout construction also. We had one the week before work started and are looking to schedule another one in the next week. I will send another email as soon as the date and time are confirmed for this meeting.
Thanks again to everybody for your patience. Please continue to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you,
Ken
KEN PLOWMAN I Senior Engineering Technician
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
APRIL 21 UPDATE:
The subcontractor installing the water main has completed the section from STH 69 down to 5th Avenue. This is going through the testing process today and Monday at which time Subway, Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, and the two water services to Dearth can be switched over to the new main. The swapping of these 5 services from the old main to the new main will require a short shut-down with this work scheduled for the middle of next week. The contractor will update these businesses as this work gets closer. Once the 5 services are switched to the new main the contractor will begin water main work from 5th Avenue to 3rd Avenue with the businesses in this stretch requiring a few temporary water shut-downs which will be coordinated as they get closer. This crew has also jumped over to the north side of 8th Street between 1st Avenue and 7 ½ Street to complete some water main work ahead of schedule.
Rock Road has continued with storm sewer with this past week spent installing the new concrete pipe between 4th Avenue West and 7 ½ Street on the south side of the road. They will have a few short runs of storm sewer to complete in this area but starting next week Rock Road is planning on removing the old road base and replacing this with the new aggregate base. This work will start at 6th Avenue West and head east toward 1st Avenue. Once the water main work is complete from STH 69 to 3rd Avenue the crews will be able to come in and do the storm sewer work in this section but that may be a week or more away.
I am sure many of you have noticed the traffic signal lights are no longer flashing. At the start of construction we wanted to leave them flashing to get everybody use to the traffic pattern but at some point they needed to be shut down to allow construction to continue and we decided to do that earlier this week. The stop signs are now controlling traffic at the intersections.
Many of you have contacted me with concerns about the 3rd Avenue intersection not being a 4-way stop like the other intersections. We were really hoping to keep 8th Street traffic moving freely at this intersection as we have concerns about backed up traffic blocking drive ways close to 3rd Avenue but after numerous calls from concerned businesses and continued discussions with Monroe Police Officers it became apparent that drivers were not using this intersection properly. We installed two additional stop signs to make this a 4-way stop shortly after the lunch hour today. Although we still have concerns about traffic congestion we couldn’t continue with the confusion that everybody was seeing. We hope this change helps the traffic flow and our concerns over back-ups are found to be unwarranted.
I continue to be impressed with everybody’s patience up to this point. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns as we move forward.
Thank you,
Ken
KEN PLOWMAN I Senior Engineering Technician
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
1107 16th Avenue
Monroe, Wisconsin 53566
P: 608.329.6400
F: 608.325.2797
C: 815-238-0032
www.fehr-graham.com
APRIL 13 UPDATE:
The contractor continues to work on the new water main from the STH 69 intersection going west. They are moving past 6th Avenue today and should be approaching 5th Avenue by the end of the day tomorrow or early next week. The businesses in this area had a planned water shut-down which was supposed to happen today but the old deteriorating water main broke yesterday which required an emergency shut-down. The good news is that the work planned for today was able to be completed while the water was off and today’s planned shut-down was not needed. I want to thank the affected businesses for your patience during this unscheduled work.
Crews also unloaded storm sewer structures and piping earlier this week with this storm sewer installation starting yesterday at 6th Avenue West going toward 4th Avenue. This crew will continue moving east toward 1st Avenue tomorrow and early next week.
Although water main and storm sewer are the two biggest items of work we also saw traffic control, erosion control, and other smaller items this last week. The contractor is still on schedule and making good progress when they can avoid the rain.
Once again I appreciate everybody’s patience so far during construction. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns as we move forward.
Thank you,
Ken
KEN PLOWMAN I Senior Engineering Technician
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
1107 16th Avenue
Monroe, Wisconsin 53566
P: 608.329.6400
F: 608.325.2797
C: 815-238-0032
www.fehr-graham.com
APRIL 6 UPDATE:
It’s been a busy week on the 8th Street project despite the rain. Crews have been working to remove pavement, curb & gutter and sidewalk along the south side of 8th Street and will continue to do so the rest of the week. Next week Rock Road will begin replacing storm sewer from 3rd Avenue to 6th Avenue West while the water main crews work east of 3rd Avenue.
You may have noticed a shift in traffic near the intersection of highway 69. This shift has occurred to allow the water main crews to bore new water main underneath the intersection. This process will take approximately a week and a half to complete so please be cautious with all the equipment in the area. While the water main bore is taking place, the crews will work to install new water pipe from highway 69 to 5th Ave. Businesses located between the Blue Ox and 5th Avenue should expect a short disruption to their water service while we temporarily switch over the services. If you will be affected by the shutdown, the contractor will notify you 48 hours in advance. If everything goes smoothly, the shutdowns should be less than 2 hours.
We have had some good feedback on signage at 3rd Avenue. I understand this intersection can be hard to get used to but we’ve added some additional signage to let drivers know traffic on 8th Street does not stop. Hopefully this helps the confusion. We will continue to monitor the intersection and adjust as needed. Turning movements for semis will be difficult throughout the project site so we encourage deliveries to use the side avenues.
I want to encourage you all to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. There is a lot of work happening and we are trying to minimize the disruption to the businesses. This can be very difficult at times with the amount of work being done but we appreciate your patience and support. Please continue to drive careful and keep your eye out for workers and construction equipment. Have a great week!
KEN PLOWMAN I Senior Engineering Technician
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
1107 16th Avenue
Monroe, Wisconsin 53566
P: 608.329.6400
F: 608.325.2797
C: 815-238-0032
www.fehr-graham.com
MARCH 29 UPDATE:
I promised weekly updates at the various public involvement meetings for the Monroe 8th Street project and I wanted to get my first one out today.
- Project Work Completed:
- Rock Road removed the island at 6th Avenue West to allow the stage 1 traffic switch to use this area as the westbound lane.
- Selco removed old striping, placed new temporary striping, installed traffic signs, drums, flexible markers, and other traffic control items necessary to set up stage 1 traffic control.
- Selco also installed the business signs north and south of 8th
- Rock Road on site today, Wednesday March 28th, removing the existing asphaltic surface on the south half of 8th The existing asphalt in the intersections was left in place to allow traffic to go across 8th Street smoothly. Millings were left in place at all driveways that are being left open.
- Upcoming Work:
- Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow but if it holds off you will see the mills back on site removing some more of the existing asphaltic surface on the south half of 8Th
- Crews will also start removing all of the concrete including the concrete pavement, curb & gutter, and the sidewalk starting at STH 69 and going down to 6th Avenue West over the next few days.
- Water main crews will be on site starting tomorrow March 30th. The first thing they will be working on is to set up temporary water services to the businesses between STH 69 and 5th This temporary service will require a short 30-45 minute water shut down for each business which the contractor will coordinate early next week. This temporary service is being done to reduce the risk of longer shut downs if the old deteriorated water main was to break during construction. Once the temporary services are installed the new water main installation will start the middle of next week.
Hopefully everything is working out OK so far. The first few days of construction have went pretty well from my perspective and I certainly appreciate everybody’s patience.
Thank you,
Ken
KEN PLOWMAN I Senior Engineering Technician
Fehr Graham – Engineering & Environmental
1107 16th Avenue
Monroe, Wisconsin 53566
P: 608.329.6400
F: 608.325.2797
C: 815-238-0032
www.fehr-graham.com