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Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management responding to pending Agenda Items 22225 and 22226 re: Highland Avenue improvements, and supporting #209304, a bond for the Central Hill Campus Park.
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To the Honorable City Council:
In response to Council Orders 22225 and 22226 on tomorrow’s agenda and in support of item 209304 for the funding of the Central Hill Campus Plan Phase I construction, please accept this email response.
As you know, we are in full swing of the design for Phase I of the Spring Hill Sewer Separation project, which in addition to the underground utility work will include streetscape improvements for the major corridors including Central Street, School Street, Summer Street, Highland Avenue and others. We anticipate having community meetings for the streetscape concepts early in the new year. Highland Avenue from McGrath to Central Street is in-scope for Phase 1. Improvements to the Highland/Walnut intersection including signalization changes (Order 22225) and paving of Highland from Medford to Central (Order 22226) will be incorporated into that project. In general the anticipated schedule is to complete design in CY2020, to complete subsurface construction in CY2021/22, and to complete surface improvements in CY2022/23.
For Item 209304 currently in Finance but which may be discussed with full Council on Thursday, it is my understanding there are also questions regarding the intersection of Walnut and Medford. It is important for the Council to know that IAM, Mobility and other City Departments are currently reviewing the directionality of Walnut and the functionality of School. At present, School Street is a major south-bound route for fire response from the Broadway fire station to locations on Spring Hill. The GLX project will be closing the School Street bridge from mid-CY2020 through mid-CY2021; consequently, we are evaluating options to reverse the directionality of Walnut at least from Broadway to Highland. This has also sparked a discussion of regional cut-through traffic, as well as functionality of School Street near City Hall, which may motivate us to make that switch permanent and for the full length. Obviously, there are discussions including community input that will drive that decision, and we will be having those in early 2020. That is to say that at a minimum, we will be having GLX install temporary safety measures at the intersection of Walnut and Medford as part of their traffic management plan in mid-2020. Once the School Street bridge re-opens, IAM - Engineering will construct permanent improvements to the intersection (and others as necessary) consistent with the conclusions of the investigation. Given the timing and geography, we may incorporate that work into the Spring Hill Sewer Separation contract.
I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Regards,
Richard E. Raiche, PE, PMP
Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management