Be warned: Prospect Avenue closure starts Monday
CHAMPAIGN — Beginning Monday, a major traffic artery through the center of Champaign will be severed for up to three weeks while workers install a bigger storm sewer to alleviate flooding problems.
Prospect Avenue will be closed to through traffic during the construction of the new sewer, and drivers will be rerouted to other roads.
The project is part of the John Street storm sewer reconstruction, for which workers are replacing a 30-inch storm sewer with larger, higher-capacity conduit. The improvements are expected to alleviate chronic flooding problems for thousands of residents in the John Street area.
Underneath Prospect Avenue, workers will replace the 30-inch pipe with a 54-inch pipe.
Champaign resident engineer Louis Braghini said closing Prospect Avenue seemed the only way to ensure everyone's safety.
"The road is very narrow there and trying to maintain two lanes of traffic and trying to construct a storm sewer at the same time would be very dangerous," Braghini said.
Braghini expects the closure to last for up to three weeks. Meanwhile, southbound traffic on Prospect Avenue will be cut off at Springfield Avenue and redirected to the southbound lanes of Mattis Avenue. Vehicles will be allowed to continue traveling south on Prospect at Kirby Avenue.
Northbound traffic will follow a mirrored route. Vehicles will be cut off at Kirby Avenue and travel north on Neil Street. Those drivers will be allowed to resume their northbound travel on Prospect at Springfield Avenue.
Overall, the $6.8 million project is on time and on budget, Braghini said, and workers have experienced minimal problems.
They have been moving along John Street from Neil Street since they began this summer, leaving a bigger storm sewer and brand new street behind them.
"Anytime you deal with undergrounds, there's always unknowns," Braghini said. "There's stuff in the way that you thought was out of the way."
That has not slowed the estimated completion date of June 2012, he said.
"Most (residents) are extremely excited about the project," Braghini said. "They can't wait to get rid of the potential of flooding throughout the project."
Normally I don't have much negitive things to say about the things that Champaign does. However, it seems to me that they could have found a better time to be doing this, other than in the holiday season. Everyone is shopping now a days getting things for Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Granted this is further south than most busy retail shops but even still they had all summer to get this project done. I may not know what it is that I am talking about, I am not in any way in the construction/pavement field, nor do I know about the finacial situation paying for this project.
In my honest opinion it seems as if they could have found a better time to do this project.
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