Saltzman Road improvements will begin this summer

One property has already been acquired for the project and subsequently removed. The new sidewalk would have been right at the front door of the house at the corner of Lovejoy and Saltzman so the owners agreed to sell the property to the county and have relocated nearby.

Washington County will be widening Saltzman Road from Cornell to Bauer Woods Drive beginning around July, says project manager Matt Costigan. The project will include improving the two travel lanes, adding a center turn lane, installing traffic lights at Dogwood and 128th, constructing sidewalks throughout the project area, and adding bike lanes and street lights.

The final engineering design is expected to be complete in mid-April. The job will then be advertised for bids, and when a contractor is selected the project will go to the Board of Commissioners for final approval in June. Project completion should take about 18 months, winding up in December 2010.

The first work, once the contractor is selected, will be to “clear and grub.” This involves removing trees and other vegetation in the project path. And yes, unfortunately, it will include a number of large trees that line the west side of Saltzman. It may be possible to save some of the logs to use in a nearby park project.

Once the right-of-way is cleared, trenches will be dug for utilities, which will be undergrounded from Cornell to the library. This will give a better visual look to the area, as well as leaving more room on the sidewalks for pedestrians. Five-foot-wide sidewalks will line both sides of the road in that area, with a ten-foot sidewalk in front of St Pius X and five-foot wide sidewalks from St Pius northward. Dark-sky-friendly lighting will be used throughout the project, rather than the attractive but light-polluting “acorn-style” lights that were used along Cornell.

A hard-fought battle to get a light at Dogwood Street (enabling pedestrians to cross safely to get to the library) was won when Bales-Findley Property Management agreed to reconfigure their parking lot at that corner. The new entrance will be on Dogwood, and the Saltzman Road entrance to Bales, next to the Grange Hall, will be restricted to right-in/right-out upon completion of the project..

Work on the project will be done Monday-Friday between 9 am and 3:30 pm. Some night work will occur in the “downtown” area only to avoid road closures during commute hours. The road will not be closed during the project but delays should be anticipated, and the speed limit will be 25 mph for the duration of the work.

The project is funded through the Major Streets Transportation Improvement Program (MSTIP) 3B (design and right-of-way acquisition) and MSTIP 3C (construction). Project budget is $11,500,000.

A focus group composed of community members, business owners and other concerned parties met eight times from October 2007 to October 2008. Several public open houses were held to inform the public about the progress being made and to give meeting participants an opportunity to provide feedback. One more open house will be held after the contractor is selected to give the public a chance to meet the contractor. The project website, deainc.com/saltzmanroad.html has maps and more information about the project.

NOTE: see the November 2008 issue of The News for more detailed project information.

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