While road construction season is generally associated with summer, a couple of large projects will break ground in Riverside after Labor Day, ones that will force some residents to park their cars overnight away from their properties for weeks at a time.
Although the exact start date has not yet been identified, sometime soon after Labor Day, residents of Shenstone Road between Delaplaine Road and Harlem Avenue will be in the midst of a construction zone through at least mid-November.
On Aug. 17, Riverside trustees awarded a design/build contract of around $2.5 million to Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd. to completely reconstruct that stretch of Shenstone Road.
The cost of the project came in well above the $1.75 million budgeted for the work. According to Public Works Director Dan Tabb, the two main reasons for the overage is the replacement 42 lead water service lines from the B-boxes in the parkway to homes on either side of Shenstone Road and upsizing the combined sewer main along Shenstone Road.
Neither had been initially budgeted, but the lead water service line replacement is now required by state law when a new water main is installed, which this project calls for. The existing 4-inch main, which is at least 70 years old, according to Tabb, will be replaced with a new 8-inch water main. The water line replacements account for about $300,000 of the additional cost.
The work will involve excavating the roadway completely, removing the existing 22-inch combined sewer and laying down a new 36-inch combined sewer, which will add more storm water capacity in an area that experiences flooding during heavy rains.
That larger sewer will connect to the combined sewer lines serving several blocks north all the way to 26th Street.
Riverside had not planned to upsize the sewer as part of the project, but with Shenstone Road being excavated down to the ground, now was the time to do it, said Tabb.
“We decided this would be the opportune time to help alleviate some of the surcharging we have in the system by adding some more storm water capacity,” Tabb told village trustees on Aug. 17. “Even though it wasn’t in the original budget, we felt it warranted to be included because of all of the surrounding blocks that will be affected by increasing the sewer diameter.”
Once the underground work is complete, roadway itself will be reconstructed, including new curbs and gutters, and many driveway aprons.
Work will start at Delaplaine and move east, which means access to residential driveways will be impossible once the street is excavated for the water and sewer work. According to Tabb, that could mean Shenstone Road could be closed to all traffic for six to eight weeks.
Residents during that time will have to park overnight on Addison Road between Delaplaine and Harlem, on Shenstone west of Delaplaine and on Blythe Road.
“We’ll give people plenty of notice,” Tabb said.
