Fayette Street paved, road construction expected to end as soon as next month

Home City News Fayette Street paved, road construction expected to end as soon as next month
Fayette Street paved, road construction expected to end as soon as next month
Fayette Street Construction continues on schedule. Stefan Kleinhenz | Collegian

Road construction on Fayette Street continues as scheduled, with construction slated to finish as soon as November.

Hoffman Bros. Inc. of Battle Creek, MI, the contractors who won the project bid in July, began construction on the 1,254-foot section of road adjacent to M-99 on Sept. 9. The city plans to totally reconstruct the quarter-mile stretch of road, which includes digging down around 20 feet and installing storm sewers to limit water runoff into people’s homes.

The city of Hillsdale receives funding for the project from the MDOT Small Urban Grant Program. Their grant supplies $375,000 out of the 1.065 million dollars necessary to complete the project, leaving the city of Hillsdale to account for $690,000 or 65% of the funding.

Hammel described the prior disrepair of the road as severe. “We patched it all the time,” Hillsdale Director of Public Services Jacob Hammel said. “We literally put tons of patch material every year just to keep it drivable.”

While there remains a possibility that the project will be finished this fall, the project probably will not be completed until the spring, due to a box culvert that must be installed over the St. Joseph River. 

“That’s going to be the one thing that will drive the end of the project,” Hillsdale City engineer Kristin Bauer said.

The box culvert, a three-sided, 22 ft. x 7 ft. concrete bridge over the river, will carry both pedestrian and vehicle traffic, replacing the wooden bridge that is currently used for pedestrians with a normal sidewalk.

The culvert is currently being fabricated. “It’s in production now,” Hammel said.

 “It’s very possible that it will show up in early November, which will allow us to possibly get the project done before Thanksgiving,” Bauer said. “But because asphalt plans generally close in mid-November, we would probably just install the box culvert and have to finish the work after April 15 when asphalt plants reopen.”

By that time, however, the rest of the road will be finished. They will have 200 feet of road and curb by the box culvert to complete.

Much of the work has been completed already. “From the river to West Street, all the curbs, sidewalks, and pedestrian ramps are completed now, and they have also backfilled around the sidewalk and the curbs,” Hammel said.

In addition, the contractors paved from West Street to the river on Wednesday, October 14. The pavers based and leveled the road, putting three and a half inches of asphalt down. 

Nevertheless, Bauer noted this will only be the first layer of pavement applied. The contractors will wait until they get the culvert installed to lay down the final inch and a half of asphalt, so they can minimize the number of crack-inducing joints and have a continuous road from one project limit to the other.

But even if construction gets pushed back to the spring, the road by the culvert will be temporarily paved over and opened to lightweight vehicle traffic, eliminating the detours for all but large, commercial traffic.

Overall, Ward 2 Councilman and mayor pro tempore Will Morrisey believes the project is moving along at a great pace. “We have had great weather and the crews are working six days a week,” Morrisey said. “We are getting our money’s worth.”

Hammel also expressed excitement at the project’s advancement.

“We’re ecstatic,” Hammel said. “I have been very pleased with the contractor and the progress so far.”