Broadway construction is on schedule and on budget as it heads into phase two

QUINCY — Phase one of water line replacement along Broadway between 12th and 24th Streets is on schedule and will be completed by Friday, August 1, Project Manager Tim Keppner of Rees Construction told Muddy River News Tuesday.

“We will be pulling barricades off Broadway, staging them along the sidewalk for our traffic control contractor to come through the following Monday to begin the setup for phase two.”

August 4 remains the start date for work on Broadway between 24th and 30th Streets. The plan remains to complete phase two by the beginning of October.

One of the biggest challenges encountered so far was while testing the new water main.

“There’s so much debris that gets brought up, the road being dusty and everything, people saw a two to three week period, a lot of work not taking place,” Keppner explained. “That’s because of the challenges getting the water main to pass. It did pass the bacterial testing. Now we’re pushing through to the finish line.”

The original schedule created a buffer for complications such as this to keep the pace of work on track.

“Anytime you’re dealing with 100-year-plus infrastructure, you never know what you’re going to run into,” Keppner said.

There was a bit of surprise with the discovery of a mystery source feeding into the water main, and that may require extra work and expense.

“We’re currently seeing some back pressure on the old main that we were supposed to abandon. There’s potential that there’s some mapping that may be unknown, or some line that may be feeding into the existing 20-inch main. We’ve got some future investigation to do, after we get 18th Street opened up, before we can complete the cap and cut of the water main at 12th Street.”

So, by the end of the day Friday, Broadway between 12th and 24th will be opened up. But work could resume at the old water main on 12th after crews start phase two.

“We don’t know what kind of animal we’re dealing with,” Keppner said. “There may be something that may have been done 50 or 60 years ago that was never documented that’s causing this issue. There’s potential we may come back out during the month of September or Octoberish, closing more lanes on Broadway.”

City of Quincy Director of Public Works, Jeffrey Conte, agreed that more investigation was necessary, but wasn’t certain about a “mystery line.”

“I’m not convinced it’s an unmapped flow. It might be a valve that wasn’t closed,” he told MRN. “Valves will be analyzed when there’s less traffic.”

With the second phase about to begin, Keppner made an urgent plea to drivers.

“Do your best to stay off of Broadway,” he said. “It’s challenging enough to work on an extremely busy street. Let alone having disrespectful people drive through our construction zones. Respect the guys that are working out there. Our goal is to get off the road as soon as we possibly can.”

Keppner confirmed they will close 24th Street just south of Broadway for a couple of weeks.

There will also be work on the north side of Broadway to complete a new water service for Prairie Farms Dairy.

Construction partner Laverdiere Construction of Macomb starts work at 30th heading west to meet Rees at 27th Street.

This water main work will be similar to the traffic control of phase one, although eastbound traffic will have to adjust to traveling in what, during normal operations, would be the turn lane.

Several businesses along the south side of Broadway will not have access from Broadway. Rees met with the owners involved to help them plan alternative routes for their workers and customers.

Cassano’s Pizza & Subs at 27th and Broadway has already posted alerts on its Facebook page.

They dropped the delivery charge from $3 to $1 and provided maps on different ways to reach them.

“You have to roll with the punches,” said Cassano’s owner and general manager Michael Armitage. “We want to make it safe for our workers and customers. We’re just posting and reminding everyone this is a residential neighborhood. Be cautious and watch out for kids, especially with the start of school.”

Rees says it will leave some of the driveways open, but that as water main work progresses there will be a time period that impacts access to driveways along the south side.

“We ask the public that needs to access these businesses to look at alternative routes,” advised Keppner. “try to stay off of Broadway.”

Some businesses, however, only have one way in or out.

“We’ll try to plan far enough in advance to give them warning that we’re coming in and they will lose driveway access,” promised Keppner.

Conte says this phase should be easier compared with phase one, where crews were dealing with lines as big as 20 inches.

“The next phase is all six-inch pipe, which is faster.”

Then there’s the bidding process for repaving Broadway that begins soon.

Once the water main project is done, Keppner says Quincy can expect to see concrete crews.

“Construction on Broadway is going to continue for the next couple of years. The result is a compliant roadway with ADA access and a newly repaved Broadway.”