creek road work sign

City Street Information Downloads

May 2023 Street Update

Bids will be opened on June 1 for Miller Road (Morrish to Seymour), with approval of a contractor expected on June 12. The DDA has recommended approval of onstreet parking on Miller from Hayes to Morrish Road per a traffic study by OHM. This is expected to reduce speeds and noise, as well as to increase pedestrian safety. See the January 2023 update for details on the Miller Road rehabilitatoin project.
 
Bids are expected to go out in late May or early June for the following:
 
Norbury (Road reconstruction and water main replacement)
Durwood (Road reconstruction and water main replacement)
Greenleaf (Road reconstruction and water main replacement)
Whitney (Road reconstruction and water main replacement)
Winshall (Road reconstruction and water main replacement)
 
Seymour (limited water main replacement)
 
Note that Don Shenk is not included because the water main for this street is relatively new. Street reconstruction will follow this phase, which is largely related to required water main replacement. Project bidding has been delayed by reviews for USDA loan compliant water main. It is expected that this project will take approximately two construction seasons to complete. Given the current bidding and award timeline, along with availabity of water main pipe, the outlook for a productive 2023 construction season is questionable.
 
Rehabiltiatoin of streets in Winchester Woods will also be priced. This project, depending on pricing and the timeline for watermain work, may commence in 2023 or 2024.
 
See the January 2023 Update for more details.

January 2023 Street Update

The Morrish Road project is fully open to traffic and substantially complete. This project should be behind us very shortly. The city inspected the project with the engineer to see if it is ready to close out. Staff has concerns about some apparent reflective cracking. While cracking over joints is not uncommon for rehabilitation projects, there is a substantial amount that may be cause for concern. This is most notable around Fortino and the storage units on Morrish.

We have an agreement with the MDOT for the Miller Road buyout, which might make funds available for 2023. With that said, we are looking to bid in the late winter and need to finalize preliminary engineering. OHM is working on final engineering, and we hope to bid soon.

The federal award for this project has been increased from $1,054,959 to $1,249,499. At 90%, our share is up to $1,124,549 from $949,463. This money will be much less restricted road money, which should enable us to complete the necessary resurfacing, joint work, curb, and drainage, without needing to focus on other MDOT requirements. Note that cost increases and the continuing need to pay Davis Bacon wages (prevailing wages) may still dig into local reserves.

If bids are low, funds can be spent to expand the project scope as we see fit. There is no shortage of deferred maintenance on other major streets (south Morrish, concrete portions of Miller, and even parts of east Miller and Elms). Another options is some striping or lane change configurations downtown, should the city wish to explore on-street parking on Miller from Morrish to Hayes.

With that said, OHM has modeled an option for this segment with on street parking. Doing so will certainly have the mixed impact of slowing traffic, as well as the obvious increase to parking spaces, an increased buffer for sidewalk uses. The study was in the November 14, 2022 council packet. We will need to decide if we wish to pursue this prior to having the roadwork commence.

The DDA discussed this matter at their meeting on November and December meetings.  There was support and opposition, with no recommendation.

All other street work for 2022 is substantially complete. Road paint has been completed on Bristol, Seymour, and Hill. However, there are still some missing stop bars and specialty markings (approved at the September 12 meeting). Note that Seymour now has a double yellow line centered on the street, with edge lines included to provide for shoulders on both sides. The lane width is at 10.5’. This should result in traffic calming and provide a safer space for bikers.

OHM is preparing preliminary engineering for the remainder of Winchester Village and Winchester Woods. This is a very large scope of work. As observed with the recent streets in the Village, the water main that is in place is 70-year-old cast iron, with failing joints. As such, it is imperative to replace water main for those streets that have original pipe (note that this excludes Don Shenk, which has ~20 year old water main, with a corresponding top coat of asphalt).

In order to tackle such a large scope of water main, we intend to bond with the USDA for another phase. This means that the water main work must be completed in two construction seasons. The removal of the street and existing main further necessitates that the streets be completed in the same timeline. As such, a street bond is prudent.

We are currently finalizing the USDA borrowing process and should be ready to bid the water main and streets this winter. The USDA and street bond processes will be conducted concurrently, but they are separate and distinct. Note that delivery times for ductile iron are extensive, from 8 to 12 months. This could prevent any meaningful work form occuring in 2023.

Mid-July Street Update

All street projects for 2022 are substantially complete. Seymour, Bristol, and Hill will be striped in the coming weeks. Note that Seyour will be striped with a center double-yellow and two edge lines so that there are shoulders on both sides (instead of the wide north land and narrow south lane). This change should improve traffic calming and give bikers a safer place to operate.
 
Miller Road funding has been approved. As such, we may be able to proceed with improvemetns in 2023 to rehabilitate the section between Morrish and North Seymour (Speedway). See the prior reports on the schedule for Winchester Village and other projects.

July Street Update

Seymour (Miller to the railway), Bristol (Elms to the city limit), and Hill (Seymour to the city limit) are scheduled to be resurfaced this summer. Work has been ongoing to repair catch basins, add drain lines, and perform limited road base reconstruction prior to commencement of paving. The paving portion is expected to take less than a week to complete, and full closures are not expected. As of writing, the contractor cannot commit to a date due to the lack of availability of pavement milling machines. See prior reports for details on past & upcoming reconstruction projects in Winchester Village.

May 2022 Street Update

Please see the April update below for general information about the 2022 construction season!
 
The contractor that is working on Morrish is moving along now. Milling is underway, and limited paving will be performed by mid-May. If things go well, they will be able to pave more than half of the southern section (miller to I69) and ALL of the northern section. This could open Morrish to two-way traffic by mid-May. This is not a guarantee, but it is the plan.
 
The same contractor is also going to be performing the work on Hill Road (Seymour to city limits), Seymour (Miller to city limits), and Bristol Road (Elms to city limits). These projects will be limited in their scope (ashpaht resurfacing only) and much quicker. Milling of Seymour may start the week of May 2nd. Traffic should be open in all directions with a flagging crew in place, but altnerate routes are advised. Bristol Road will require some base/drainage work. We plan to push this off until the Morrish Road detour is no longer required. No dates have been set for the Hill Road cap as of writing.