Seventh Avenue drainage work to go forward soon

By Janet Jacobs

Daily Sun

The long-awaited drainage project to fix the storm water flow on Seventh Avenue in Corsicana could get underway as quickly as March of 2010, according to officials with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).

The plans call for moving the utilities, such as electricity, gas, water and sewer, and then rebuilding the street with a large storm water culvert below the street. The entire project will cost nearly $11 million.

Two million of that will be the responsibility of the city and will pay for moving the utilities and other preparations for the drainage work.

“We’re hoping to start our utility relocations early next year, hopefully in February or March,” said City Manager Connie Standridge. “That will depend on the schedule from TxDOT.”

The city raised water and sewer rates in late summer, and included debt service for this work into its figures, Standridge said.

This project, scheduled to take up to 20 months for construction, will not include widening the street to allow for a continuous turn lane.

“The utilities will be relocated in anticipation of a widening,” Standridge said. “But the widening project will strictly be TxDOT’s decision. They haven’t made that a project yet.”

The state is set to undertake $2 billion in projects in the next few years, and Navarro County will get nearly $12 million of that, said Karen Amacker, spokeswoman for TxDOT. Texas voters approved $5 billion in road projects in 2007, but the legislature approved selling $2 billion of it in early 2009.

“The way we went about selecting projects is similar to how we selected projects for the stimulus,” she said. The Navarro County projects are considered rehabilitation and safety issues.

The Corsicana work will stretch from Beaton Street to 28th Street, shutting down through traffic to two lanes for nearly two years, said Ray Nance, assistant area engineer for TxDOT.

“Local people will probably be asked to find alternate routes because of all the traffic on it,” he said.

TxDOT will try to keep access to all businesses, but people may have to be creative in some stretches, Nance said. For example, people trying to go to the Jack in the Box or the movie theater may have to enter the parking lot near the Big Lots store.

“Hopefully, we’ll have access maintained to some level,” he said. “We will try to do the best we can.”

The goal is to cut down on the amount of water collecting in the street, and even in stores.

“We’re not saying we won’t get high water on it, but hopefully, instead of having to drive in the center two lanes you’ll be able to drive in all four lanes. In heavier storms, there will still be some water problems. We’re not eliminating them, but it should minimize them.”

Widening it to a five-lane street with a continuous turn lane is still a goal, but it’s not an immediate plan, Nance said.

“It may be proposed in the future, but it’s probably not going to be in the near future,” he said.

The finished project will feature a concrete street and sidewalk access at each intersection.

“This will definitely change the look of Seventh,” Standridge said. “I’m excited about it. A left-hand turn lane would be nice, but I’ll take what I can get.”

A separate project for southern Navarro County was also approved in the list of rehabilitation projects. In that $1.89 million project, the state will rebuild FM 739 between U.S. 287 and Interstate 45. That road swings east and allows drivers to go from the Mustang/Angus exit to U.S. 287 near the Corsicana airport.

The FM 739 project has been on the books for awhile also, but was delayed until the I-45 work was completed, Nance said.

“The contractor’s plant for asphalt was on 739, so all his trucks were coming out onto 739,” Nance explained. “We delayed (the project) so it wouldn’t be our own trucks wearing out the pavement.”

In addition to resurfacing the rural road, the work will also include repairing a bridge, he said.

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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com. Want to “Soundoff” on this story? E-mail: soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com.