MOUNT VERNON — Orange barrels will be a familiar sight for those traveling Mansfield Avenue this summer.
Mount Vernon City Council members authorized Safety-service Director Tanner Salyers to bid and contract for two improvement projects: the Dan Emmett neighborhood project and the Mansfield Avenue waterline and drainage improvements.
“The longer we wait the more it’s going to cost, so we’re trying to get out to bid immediately so we can capture the construction market while it has availability,” City Engineer Brian Ball said. “Our plan is to bid both projects together to try and attract larger, regional contractors who will give us better pricing.”
The Dan Emmett project must be completed and bills paid by Aug. 1.
The Mansfield Avenue work will be done so that it easily ties in with the city’s Fairgrounds Road project.
“We don’t want to drag these projects into school. We want to try and be between the fair and when school is back in session,” Ball said.
Dan Emmett neighborhood
The city started planning the $2.59 million project, which is a mix of parks, streets, and utilities, in May 2022. Work involves reconstructing Nuce and Marma drives, including sidewalks, curbs, gutters, storm sewers, and paving.
“We have basement flooding and sanitary sewer backups on a regular basis,” Ball said. “We’re creating a new sanitary system and replacing the failed storm system in this area, and we’re adding sidewalks as requested by the folks.”
Crews will install new sidewalks on Northgate, Nuce, and Marma drives.
“We’re doing a water line on Marma, and storm drains throughout the project area,” Ball said.
The sanitary sewer is behind the row of houses on Mansfield Avenue.
“It’s really difficult to get to; it doesn’t make any sense that it’s there,” he said. “We’re going to bring it out and put it in the road and correct a lot of the problems with it being between houses.”
The city will add a storm drain to drain the swampy area behind the first block on Mansfield Avenue, from Nash to Northgate.
The Dan Emmett Park and school will get a new asphalt surface, playground equipment, and parking upgrades, as well as safety barriers along Nuce Road. The playground equipment is in place and almost complete.
Funding for the $2.59M project comes from several sources:
•$750,000 federal CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) ($50,000 goes to administrative costs)
•$275,000 Ariel Foundation (sidewalks, street, drainage, and park portions)
•$1.464M city funds (water, wastewater, storm water, and general)
Mansfield Avenue
Starting at Northgate Drive, low-quality cast iron piping has failed multiple times. Work includes replacing a water line on the west side of the road and replacing two culverts for the road.
Ball said the $1.2M project is divided fairly evenly between water and stormwater work. However, the roads and bridges fund will cover the $619,000 for the culverts to avoid over-committing the stormwater fund.
The remaining $631,000 will come from the water improvements fund.
The city previously bought water lines with American Rescue Plan Act money. Depending on the bids, the city might have the contractor supply the lines and save its lines for a future project.
The work will also serve as prep work for building the bike path from Grange Avenue to Belmont. The city is finalizing easements with property owners for the culvert and bike path work.
