Public meeting provides details on upcoming McGregor Main Street project
By Audrey Posten, Times-Register
The first phase of McGregor’s long awaited Main Street Reconstruction Project is slated to begin this spring. Although no official date has been set, construction will start in April, or even early May, according to Alex Jaromin, project engineer with Davy Engineering, who led a public information meeting at the Backwoods Event Center on March 9.
“You’ll know a week before the exact date that construction will start because you’ll see portable dynamic message signs go up on the entrances to the city,” he said.
The now $10.5 million project will include construction of a new Front Street lift station and corresponding force main, followed by water, sanitary sewer and storm sewer utility upgrades and full reconstruction of Main Street. It’s been in the works for 2.5 years, to address excessive inflow and infiltration to McGregor’s over-100-year-old sanitary sewer system.
“The main driver of this project was overloading sanitary sewer and the wastewater treatment plant and lift station. The sanitary sewer, right now, is essentially a drain tile for the entire valley. It’s incredibly aged and there’s a lot of infiltration,” Jaromin explained.
The project has been broken into three areas: A, B and C. Area A includes the lift station, which Jaromin said will convey wastewater north of A Street. After that is complete, the contractor will move to Area B—Main Street from River Street to B Street, through McGregor’s historic commercial district. Those two areas comprise phase I of the project and will be completed this construction season, by Nov. 15. Phase II construction in Area C will start south of B Street in April/May 2023 and continue down Main Street, past St. Mary’s Catholic Church to Buell Avenue. Work will be complete in November of that year.
B Street will serve as the pivot point for the overall project, maintaining truck access to Viserion Grain except for when work is completed at the intersection.
JJ Hefel is the superintendent for the project contractor, Portzen Construction. He said his crew will complete utilities first.
“Once we get the sanitary in and do the hookups, we’ll come back and do the water main, get the main hooked up and then start doing all the services. After that, we’ll come back in and do the storm sewer. Then, we’ll core out the street and do the paving,” he said. “Once the paving is done, we’ll come in and start on sidewalks and do the best we can for everybody to have access. We’ll try to work with people.”
The majority of the sidewalk and railing will remain in place until around September, said Jaromin.
“Obviously, when doing connections to services, they would have to access and tear up some sidewalk areas to do that. They’ll work with the locals to provide temporary aggregate and ramps, if needed,” he added.
Sidewalks will be replaced immediately, according to Hefel.
“We’re planning on tearing into it and replacing as we go,” he said, noting Portzen Construction plans to work 12-hour days, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., five days per week.
The sidewalk, as well as railings, street lights and other features, will be replaced as they are now.
That means the number of railing openings is going to be the same, said Jim Maloney, design engineer with Davy Engineering.
“If we added more of those openings, we’d lose spots, and that’s not a good thing,” he stated. “We may have lost only a couple parking spaces.”
Main Street will be shut down to through traffic from B Street to the north throughout 2022 construction.
“There will be pedestrian access via the sidewalks, but there will be barricades at essentially all the roadway intersections in that area,” Jaromin said.
All access to McGregor will have to be from the south, via Business 18/Klein Brewery Road or Eagle Drive to 138th Street/Cemetery Road and down to Center Street.
With B Street as the pivot point, access will be maintained to the First Street parking lot near McGregor Municipal Utilities. Jaromin said this parking lot will serve as the main access to the commercial district.
“There will be signage directing customers or tourists to that parking lot. There’s also a potential to have bulletin boards where the city or chamber of commerce can direct people to businesses saying they are still open or access from a certain location. There are creative ways to go about it,” Jaromin said.
Parking will also be available in the smaller lot at the intersection of Main and B streets.
“The parking and business access is obviously one of the bigger challenges, but the city is trying to work with the chamber and businesses to come up with a creative way to funnel people into downtown once they make it to the parking lot. That’s what we’ll try to do with traffic control signs stating Viserion Grain and commercial district access will be from the south, then directing them to that parking lot,” Jaromin explained.
He added that Kwik Star will remain open throughout construction, with temporary access. Once the utilities are through, temporary aggregate will also be placed to allow people to reach the marina.
Additionally, access to the post office will be through the alley from B Street. For garbage collection, Waste Management plans to put a dumpster at the First Street parking lot around noon every Monday and pick it up around the same time on Tuesday.
“That will be available for anybody impacted during both stages of the project,” said Jaromin.
Construction will affect one school bus route coming from Marquette, but it will go around and access McGregor from the south. Some larger community events, such as the fall arts and crafts shows and Great River Car Show and Cruise, have moved to Turner Park.
Emergency access has also been discussed.
“We’ve provided routes of the detour and will have constant communication if there are any major changes,” Jaromin said.
Water mains will be live for the entirety of the project, except during switch overs to the new main, allowing for fire protection.
“The temporary road closure signs can be moved, and after the utilities are installed, they are going to back fill the trenches with temporary aggregate. Even if there’s brand new pavement and they have to come in for a fire, they’ve gotta do what they’ve gotta do and drive on it,” he continued.
The city or utility, MMU, is responsible for all the utility costs inside the right of way line, except for water service costs. This includes the water main, sanitary sewer main, storm sewer and also the sanitary services and storm services at certain locations up to the right of way line.
Property owners will be responsible for connection of any sump pump or downspout discharges to the new storm sewer lateral that will be provided to the right of way line, or discharging to the storm water channel to the west of Main Street.
“If we find any connections to the sanitary sewer, those obviously will not be hooked back up to the sanitary sewer,” Jaromin noted.
Property owners will additionally be responsible for water service costs, including pipe and fittings from the water main to the connection to existing service. Individuals have also been given temporary construction easement agreements, granting the city a temporary right to occupy and use the property owner’s land for construction purposes. The city will have to repair any turf, sidewalk or driveway approaches that are damaged or disturbed, at no cost to the property owner.
According to Davy Engineering Field Representative Curt Marx, businesses and residents will be notified ahead of any temporary water shutoffs.
“The water will be an hour or two for each person. When we install your new water service, we’ll talk to each individual that day, the contractor and I,” he said. “We’re going to be in constant contact with you folks. And when we’re in the field, talk to us. We’ll help you.”
Hefel said any shutdowns will occur during the business week, but Portzen will try to work as quickly as possible.
“We’d like to do two or three services at a time, get them ready to go and do within a day,” he shared.
Thanks to a temporary connection, Marx added that property owners won’t experience any sewer disruptions.
Maloney said the Main Street Reconstruction Project is being done per DNR standards and well established engineering standards. The upgrades will serve the city for decades to come—even longer than the current 1916 sanitary sewer system.
“These materials we’re using—you know how far technology has advanced. The pipes we’re putting in are nowhere near what the old stuff was,” he commented. “This will probably last 150 years or more, then be in better shape to be repaired.”
McGregor Mayor Lyle Troester, who helped secure $4.5 million in funding from the Iowa DOT, called the amount of work put into the project tremendous. He also acknowledged construction will be challenging.
“I ask for everyone’s cooperation. This is not an easy project. It affects everyone in the room in one way or another,” he said at last week’s meeting. “We’re going to go through a lot of pain, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be wonderful.”
Throughout construction, project updates will be posted to the city of McGregor website and Facebook page, and information will also be shared with the Times-Register. The contractor will notify businesses and residents directly in advance of temporary shutoffs. Portable dynamic message signs and 511ia.org will notify people of road closures.
