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Evansville readies for more road work

EVANSVILLE — No, it’s not an April Fools’ Day joke.

But on that day, another downtown Evansville road construction will start.

Detour signs will go up soon, with the contractor scheduled to start work on Tuesday, April 1, on Highway 59/Madison Street.

Work will include a city project to replace aging utilities while the state Department of Transportation will repave portions of the street.

Local traffic will be able to get through the construction zone most of the time, however, a detour will be set up around the east side using County M and Highway 14 for through traffic.

Impact to downtown businesses should be minimal, city engineer Dave Sauer said.

Here’s the plan:

-- April 1 to June 7: Workers will replace underground utilities, mostly the water main from Church Street south to Walker Street, Sauer said.

Some light poles and utilities will be moved a couple hundred feet to accommodate the state’s project of widening the intersection at Water Street, he said.

The city project also will include installing a new force main at the sanitary sewer lift station near the entrance to Lake Leota Park.

“It’s not going to be real burdensome for the residents,” Sauer said. “Everybody in the city will have access throughout the project. It’s just a matter of the through traffic.”

G. Fox and Son of Janesville is the contractor on the nearly $430,000 project.

-- June 10 to Aug. 15: The DOT will remove crumbling concrete on Madison Street, from Church Street north to about the entrance to Lake Leota Park, and pour new asphalt and install new curbs and gutter, said Gary Sassman, project manager with the DOT.

From Church Street south to the city limits, workers will mill off the big ruts and replace the surface with a couple inches of asphalt, he said.

The project also will alter the intersections at Water Street and Old Highway 92 to better accommodate for truck traffic, he said. A right-turn lane on Water Street will be added.

“We’re moving the radius back a little so trucks can get around a little easier,” Sassman said.

Madison Street at the Main Street intersection also will be repaved, but workers will do half of it at a time so traffic can continue on Main Street.

Payne and Dolan of Madison is the contractor on the $600,000 project.

While construction has detoured traffic the last few summers, residents will have a break next summer, Sauer said. The next big project is scheduled for 2010, when the downtown bridge on Main Street will be replaced, he said.