Citizen ALERT; Construction Press Release: Plans, Contacts on Concerns Listed; It all starts Sept 5

MADISON STREET

UNDERGROUND UTILITY WORK

START DATE

Work is scheduled to start on Tuesday, September 5, when the contractor plans to begin saw cutting of pavement. Madison Street will remain open to traffic during this operation.

DETOUR

The detour for through traffic is scheduled to be set up on Thursday, September 7. Barricade signs will be placed on South Madison Street at the Water Street intersection, and on Union Street at the North Madison Street intersection. Through traffic will be detoured via Water Street, Exchange Street and Union Street.

Local traffic -- i.e., vehicles coming from or going to local Evansville destinations -- will be able to use North and South Madison Street throughout the project.

SEQUENCE

Trenching and underground utility work will begin at the intersection of South Madison and Church Streets. Once that work is done, the contractor will work toward the north from that intersection to the intersection of Madison and Main Streets ("the Four Corners").

After work is done on South Madison Street, the contractor will work on the Four Corners intersection. At least one lane of traffic -- north/south and east/west -- should remain open through the intersection. If temporary, local detours are needed, they will be marked by the Public Works Department.

Once the Four Corners intersection work is finished, the contractor will progress toward the north on North Madison Street. Trenching and underground utility work will end on North Madison Street just to the north of the Badger Coach apartment building.

The contract requires all underground utilities to be in full operation by November 3, 2006. Some additional clean-up or correction activities will probably occur after that date.

GENERAL NATURE OF WORK

The contractor will be replacing water supply, sanitary sewer and storm sewer main lines which have not been altered since the 1920s. New connections to laterals also will be made. The mains run beneath the southbound lanes of Madison Street. The underground work in the Four Corners intersection is being done this year, so that this intersection can remain open throughout the 2007 Main Street reconstruction. Access limitations to properties on North and South Madison Streets this year will be temporary and localized. Working hours will be 7:00 a.m. to approximately 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Some weekend work may also occur.

WHO'S WHO

The general contractor is GMS Excavators, Inc. of Edgerton. The City's resident engineer is Tom Pfefferkorn of Foth & Van Dyke of Madison.

CONCERNS

Citizen ombudsmen have been assigned to help resolve business and resident problems which may arise during the project. If you have a specific concern or issue related to the construction work, please contact Steve Hagen at 882-6515. (If Steve is not available, please contact Jeff Farnsworth at 882-4323. And if Jeff is not available, please contact John Decker at 882-5528.) Please understand that the contractor cannot make any changes that would affect the cost or time of the work without formal approval from the City, which needs to go through proper channels. The citizen ombudsmen are part of that process, so please contact the ombudsman, rather than the contractor.

ADDITIONAL INFO

Further information will be sent out as the project progresses. This announcement has been brought to you by the

DOWNTOWN RECONSTRUCTION TASK FORCE

a joint program of the Evansville Chamber of Commerce and the City of Evansville Economic Development Committee. Task Force members: Betsy Ahner, Roger Berg, John Decker, Cheryl Dickert, Steve Eager, Jeff Farnsworth, Susan Finque, Steve Hagen, Becky Heimerl, and Chris Helgesen.

Release date: 8/25/06