Controversial street construction in Electric City tough to reverse

The cost of making changes to controversial street work being done in Electric City could be high.

The city council and mayor in a special meeting last week spoke to representatives from the Gray & Osborne engineering firm over the phone. Those representatives included Mike Meskiman and Don Tulloch.

The special council meeting March 19 was held at the Electric City Fire Station to allow for social distancing to guard against the coronavirus.

Returning the intersection of Western and Grand Avenue to its former state — a straight shot of Western to SR-155, rather than a parking lot in front of city hall — would cost in the ballpark of $100,000, G&O representatives said, including the engineering, the removal of asphalt, and construction of new asphalt.

That ballpark estimate does not include the loss in grant money awarded to the city via the state Transportation Improvement Board largely to improve the safety of the intersections at Western and Grand and Stevens and Grand, G&O said.

Asked about changing the parking situation near Changes Salon along SR-155, which went from multiple angled parking spaces to fewer parallel spaces, G&O said state law does not allow angled parking along state highways in which a car could not back out of the space without interfering with the highway traffic.

The parking situation changed there due to curbing and sidewalk work being done along SR-155, also known as Coulee Boulevard, Electric City’s main street.

G&O also said that the parallel parking allowed around five feet between a parked car and the fog line of the highway for someone to open their car door and get in or out safely without opening their door into traffic, another concern brought up by the council.

Paving all the way up to the fire station’s bay doors would have to come out of city funds, but would not be a huge additional cost, G&O said.

Construction on the street projects had been scheduled to resume March 23, but was delayed for two weeks, after which it will be revisited, Mayor Diane Kohout told The Star on Tuesday.