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player ready...A clearer picture of the Central Avenue West construction project emerged at Tuesday’s Board of Works meeting in Portage.
The project will cost the city between $6 million and $6.5 million, and work on one of the earliest steps in the project, building Poplar Street from Central Avenue north to Evergreen Street, to create an alternative traffic route, could begin this fall, officials said.
Right now, Poplar Street is an unpaved path abutting the closed information technology building once used by the Portage Township Schools. The building is west of Willowcreek Middle School.
Another city project to improve Willowcreek Road, which is the east border of the middle school, will close off the Evergreen Street-Willowcreek Road intersection, officials said. Motorists will be able to access the school via the planned Poplar Street.
The new road also will ease some of the burden on businesses between Willowcreek and Swanson roads, Mayor James Snyder said.
“Getting Poplar Street really allows us to negate the impact (on businesses),” Snyder said. “(Businesses) are going to be impacted anyway you look at it.”
The Central Avenue West plan also calls for roundabouts to be installed at the planned Poplar Street-Central Avenue intersection and Central Avenue intersections with Swanson and Willowcreek roads.
Snyder called the plan — which will not use federal dollars, according to officials — “just one of those win-win-win projects.”
City Engineer John Hannon said residential properties should not be affected by the work.
Also at the Tuesday meeting, the board approved paying Bingham Greenebaum and Doll, an Indianapolis law firm, $3,922 for a December invoice and $21,911 for a January 2017 invoice.
Last fall, Snyder hired Bingham to research the legality of the City Council’s move in February 2017 to take over the Utility Services Board, which Snyder formerly chaired.
Bingham found the council did not have authority to take over the utility board.
Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.