Construction activity on Warner Street will begin on the week of March 18, with some tree removals and tree trimming where the proposed water main will be going in the city-owned right-of-way. You will see crews marking items now. We do know that trees are precious for shade, cooling, beauty and many other beneficial items. However, we did do our best to try to design the new water main to avoid as many trees as we could and we will try to disturb as few as we can, but there is limited space in the road right-of-way with today’s required spacing to keep drinking water infrastructure a safe distance away from sewer (both storm and sanitary) infrastructure. Additionally, we have to keep it away from other utilities such as gas, phone, cable and electric that are all in the shared space of our public road right of ways.
Here is what we are planning for this project:
Full water main and water service replacement from Benston Street to Muskegon Avenue and also between Alice and Slocum Streets. The section between Muskegon Avenue and Alice had already been replaced in the last 20 years. For the most part, the water main will be on the east side of the road, but it will cross near Muskegon Avenue and near Slocum to make connections. We will also replace a portion of the water main to the west on Muskegon Avenue for about 200-feet. This work will be done first.
Once all the water main work is complete, the Warner Street road surface will be ground up (milled) and repaved from Benston to Slocum – including both intersections.
Tentative schedule is as follows (weather permitting):
March 18 – April 2, 2024 – Tree trimming, tree removals, east edge pavement removals, driveway approach removals (east side – will replace with gravel for access)
April 2 – Mid July 2024 – Water main installation. This will be done in phases because the water main needs to be installed, tested and approved before it can be put into service. This must be done in sections. Water services will be replaced all the way into the home if they are galvanized steel connected to a lead gooseneck–residents in this situation have been notified. Otherwise, most residents will be merely reconnected to the new water main once it is installed. There will be water service disruptions during these phases that may last up to 2-4 hours, and notices will be delivered ahead of time.
* In July, the intersection of Benston and Warner WILL BE CLOSED – We understand this will be a major disruption with traffic coming and going to businesses and Howmet, but it is unavoidable with the amount of water main infrastructure work that needs to take place in the intersection. The closure will likely last 2-3 weeks and a detour will be set up to White Lake Road.
Mid July to Mid August – Repaving and restriping of Warner Street. The target reopen to traffic date is before August 17, 2024.