City looks at reconstructing block of Central Avenue

Whitefish plans to reconstruct a water main on a portion of Central Avenue and will be taking a closer look at reconstructing one block to match the streetscaping design of the rest of the street.

City Council on May 4 approved a plan to create designs for a water main replacement from Third Street to Sixth Street on Central Avenue, including street reconstruction from Third to Fourth. Council asked city staff to return with cost estimates and a funding plan for the construction to take place in 2016.

“It can be difficult to access the water main for repairs since this section of Central Avenue was constructed with a concrete base, similar to other downtown blocks,” interim public works director Karin Hilding said. “At the south end of Central Avenue the road is slumping toward the river and that’s another reason we want to do the project.”

The project includes the replacement of an old cast iron water main with lead joints that has had several leaks in the past few years. For the past decade, the public works department estimates that there has been about eight water main leaks in the area.

The city plans to dead end the water line at the south end of Central Avenue to eliminate the risk of a future water break in the slump area, Hilding said.

The reconstruction of the block from Third to Fourth streets is set as a priority of the 2015 downtown master plan. The cost estimate for reconstructing the block with streetscaping to match the rest of Central is about $477,000.

Mayor John Muhlfeld said he would like to see streetscaping completed.

“I think this project has been contemplated for a long time,” he said.

Hilding presented council with three options for the project.

Option one was to move forward with the water project this fall and then reconstruct the road later. Under this option, the cost estimate was for $416,000 for the water portion this year and another $477,000 spent the next year for reconstruction. The total cost is estimated at $893,000.

Option two was to construct the water improvement project and only pave over the driving lanes on the block. The total for this option was estimated at $422,000.

The third option was to postpone the water project to expand the contract to include total reconstruction and do the entire project during the 2016 shoulder season. The total cost is estimated at $893,000, but would be spent during the same fiscal year. Under this option, council would likely have to allocate some funds from tax increment financing fund to help cover the reconstruction.

Councilor Frank Sweeney said he had concerns about affecting the area two years in a row by splitting the project into two pieces.

“My perception is you start doing something on the street, you’re shutting it down and impacting that entire area,” he said.

Councilor Jen Frandsen suggested the possibility of reconstructing the water main in the portion of the street that wouldn’t be reconstructed and then following up with redoing the water main and street in the portion from Third to Fourth at the same time.