MOUNT VERNON — Two street projects that should ease traffic issues for the south end of Mount Vernon should be completed next week.
City Engineer Brian Ball said the Parrott Street railroad intersection and the Yellow Jacket Drive projects could be completed next week. The Parrott Street project involved raising the railbed as well as improvements to the street, drainage and sidewalks.
The project raised the railbed exactly 6.06 inches, Ball said. The railroad has moved out and asphalt work can begin Tuesday, weather permitting, Ball said.
Also expected to be completed next week is paving on Yellow Jacket Drive. The reopening of the road can be used to relieve some of the traffic snarls on the south end of town tied to the Mount Vernon Avenue bridge project.
Yellow Jacket Drive has been held up due to the new road construction going over a high-pressure gas line. The line was not designed to run beneath the road, and Columbia Gas had to beef it up.
Work is expected to begin on the South Main and East Ohio intersection Monday. The intersection will go to a four-way stop as traffic light poles are taken down. The replacement poles are in the city garage, so there should be no delay in installation, City Safety Services Director Rick Dzik said.
The new light poles will have longer mast arms as the base will be moved back. The project will round the northbound corners of the intersection to allow heavy truck traffic to make safer turns; as the intersection is now, trucks often roll over the sidewalks or travel into the oncoming turn lane to make northbound turns.
Utilities
A final test run of software used to attach a $4 stormwater utility fee to water bills will be completed next Friday, Utilities Superintendent Mathias Orndorf said. The test will indicate whether bills are going to the landholder and not a tenant, as well as determine if the billing rate is correct for the water customer. Residential users will be billed $4; commercial users will be billed on a formula. The fee will appear on this month’s bills.
Orndorf further reported that the first piece of the Eastmoor Drive water project has been completed with the installation of a new water line on Eastmoor. The line will undergo pressure and bacteria tests before being brought online.
The project will connect dead-end water lines on Eastmoor, Dogwood Terrace and Upland Terrace, then run to the line serving a nearby nursing home before looping to a line on Coshocton Avenue.
