Cornell and Barnes Road construction update

by Virginia Bruce

The first phase of the Cedar Mill Town Center Plan entails widening and reconfiguration of Cornell Road between Saltzman and Murray, and of Barnes Road from near the Teufel property up to Cornell. The originally estimated date for this project to be put out for bidding was January 2004.

Several factors have caused a delay in this process, according to Russell Knoebel, Principal Engineer in Washington County’s Department of Land Use and Transportation. Due to the complexity of combining accesses and reconfiguring parking lots, especially along Cornell Road, property acquisition has taken longer than originally planned. Also, the design was recently amended to require utilities to go underground (no more ugly utility poles-yay!) and utility companies and project designers need extra time to work out efficient solutions to underground utility conflicts. If all these issues are resolved as expected, the County will put the project out to bid sometime around April, and it will be May or June before any construction begins.

Construction is expected to take up to two years until everything’s finished. During this period, the County will do all it can to mitigate effects on businesses and commuters, but we can certainly expect some delays and inconvenience. It’s that old omelet thing again.

Mitigation plans include signs to be provided for each affected business indicating how customers can get to them. One lane will be open in each direction except for brief delays. These lane closures will be limited to the hours between 9 am and 3:30 pm to minimize impact on commuters.

The County is anxious to keep lines of communication open with business owners. The Project Manager, Alex Sander, will join us at the March 16 meeting of the CMBA. He and Project Engineer Wayne Selander will meet weekly with the contractors throughout the construction process, and they invite business people to attend the last half-hour of any of their meetings to discuss concerns. They will attend several more CMBA meetings to keep us informed of developments as construction nears.

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Publisher/Editor:Virginia Bruce
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