Alley repairs pick up where they left off from last year

Alley repairs began last week. This year the city will concentrate on alleys along Conant and Jos. Campau.

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck’s alley repair program has begun its second year.
Last week work began on ripping up and repaving the alley on the west side of Conant, from Evaline to Norwalk.
Other portions of alleys along the westside of Conant will also be repaired. On Jos. Campau, alley repair will happen on alleys on the west side of the street. That work will begin in early July.
This year’s project will cost almost $600,000. The city is dipping into its budget surplus to pay $200,000 of that bill.
“This is a good use of the fund balance,” said Acting City Manager Kathy Angerer in reference to using budget surplus money.
Mayor Karen Majewski said the state needs to revise the rules on how cities can use their annual state road repair grant. The state does not allow the grant to be used for alley repairs.
Last year’s work was not completed because the contractor fell behind. Only three out of five projects were completed. The first project this year is to complete last year’s work.
The city went with a new contractor, Audia Concrete Construction, this year.
Also coming up this year is the repaving of Holbrook from Jos. Campau to Conant. That will cost $1.3 million but 80 percent of it is being paid by a federal grant.
The remaining amount comes out of the city’s annual state road repair grant, which this year amounts to $1.9 million.
The project also calls for replacing water and sewer lines at a cost of $500,000, which will come out of the city’s Water Department budget.
Work is scheduled to begin in mid-July and go through the end of November. Holbrook traffic will not be impeded during the reconstruction as at least one lane will remain open.

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This summer’s alley repair schedule
Here’s a breakdown on this year’s alley repaving on Conant and Jos. Campau.
The first part begins on Conant and includes:
The west side of Conant: Evaline to Norwalk and then Caniff to Trowbridge.
On Jos. Campau, work also concentrates on the west side of the street: Commor to Zinow, Pulaski to Whalen, Evaline to Poland and Trowbridge to Yemans.

June 15, 2018