Ortonville – Part of Mill Street is missing and it’s a good thing.
Despite some dust and a detour on Tuesday, Sept. 16, work began on resurfacing about a half mile of village road between M-15 and Church Street.
Although some people are skeptical the project will not be done by Septemberfest, the road was completely milled down by the end of the first day.
“This project should be done in time for Septemberfest, if the weather holds out,” said Village Manager Paul Zelenak.
Mill will be ground down to the concrete pad, underneath the asphalt. After a slower process of cleaning and repairing the under tier of concrete, the road will be repaved with asphalt.
Zelenak said not all of the concrete pad needs repair and in some spots the depth of the pad will be increased.
“Repaving Mill will not only improve the look but the safety of the downtown area. The bigger picture here is getting the street redone. ”
“We are focusing on this part of the village streets because it’s the worse area.”
Zelenak, who scheduled the project along with Rowe, Inc. engineer Amy Schoononver, and Florence Concrete said all parties are confident the project will not disrupt the Septemberfest activities.
The street has been in need of repair for the past several years and the village Department of Public Works crew have been maintaining the road with hot and cold asphalt patching, to save the already budgeted street repair funds.
Funds already allotted for street repair within the village budget were being guarded in the event the village would have to pay to rebuild the South Street Bridge.
A windfall decision by the state, in April 2003, to supplement the bridge repairs with Critical Bridge Funding dollars, made it possible to free up the budgeted funds to recap Mill with the $90,000 budgeted.
“Now that we have commitment for the South Street bridge it has freed up our dollars for paving this year,” said Zelenak in an earlier statement regarding Mill Street.
To replace all of Mill Street would cost nearly $100,000. Of that figure an estimated $75,000 will go toward paving, the remainder will cover engineering costs, striping, and parking allocations.
In June the village council awarded the contract bid in the amount of $69,871to the Florence Cement company, formerly known as Detroit Concrete Products. The contract is to mill and resurface Mill Street from Church to M-15.
Schoononver told village officials the company has worked with Rowe Engineering projects in the past and they have been dependable and produced satisfactorily.
With that in mind Zelenak said earlier that he is hoping the project will be done in time for the village festivities, however, he is confident that if the project stalls, businesses, vendors, and Septemberfest attendees will not be too inconvenienced by the construction.
“It will be a minor inconvenience but not a complete shut down,” said Zelenak.
“Everybody realizes it’s an improvement for the downtown area.”