Image from www.JamestownNY.net.
JAMESTOWN Motorists and neighborhood residents will soon see more construction activity on Fifth Street in the area between the Sixth Street Bridge and Washington Street.
For much of the summer, the area of Fifth Street has been closed to traffic as city construction crews work to completely reconstruct the street, which includes laying a new foundation along with curbing and sidewalks.
During the past few weeks, there’s been little heavy equipment activity on the street. However, city Department of Public Works Director Jeff Lehman says that doesn’t mean there was not working being done on the street.
“I’ve been asked the past couple of weeks why nothing is going on up there, but there is a considerable amount of work, including utility work, storm sewers, new water lines and Windstream had to relay a lot of their lines there,” Lehman explained to WRFA. “So there’s been a lot of work going on. It looks like its just a gravel road but I can assure you that there’s been a ton of work.”
Lehman also says that part of the reason the project has taken time to complete is because of all the utility work that’s taken place, but he adds that it was something that needed to be done and reconstructing the street gave them the opportunity to do it.
“You’ve got to remember that that is an older section of town,” Lehman said, “So that’s got some very old utility lines in it ant they needed to be upgraded. And you only want to do that once, so we’ve tried to make the most of our time with the street being under construction right now.”
According to Lehman, starting Friday, Sept. 12, crews will once again be on site to begin curb work. They will also start next week on base course paving, along with sidwalk and apron work. He says crews will then be able to raise and level off the various man holes, and from there they will be able to do the final paving. In all, the expect the street to be reopened by mid-October, weather permitting.
The portion of Fifth St. being reconstructed is part of NY Route 394. However, it is maintained by the city and is the only section of the route – which runs from Westfield in Chautauqua County to Steamburg in Cattaraugus County – not maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation.
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