Contracts awarded for Main Street, transfer station projects

The beginning of a three-year master plan for major road work and traffic improvements on Main Street from Broadway Street to the top of Hanover Hill will soon begin after a contract was awarded for the first phase of that project at Monday’s Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.

A $1,228,675.75 contract was awarded to All Star Paving Inc. for work on Main Street from Broadway Street to Mill Street. Meanwhile, another contract for $627,385 was awarded to Sedam Contracting for improvements to the city’s solid waste transfer station on Madison’s hilltop.

All Star Paving’s bid came in below the $1.5 million Community Crossings Matching Grant the city received from the Indiana Department of Transportation.

“We’re finally going to get started on Main Street, rather than plan, it’s constructing” said Mayor Bob Courtney, adding he is “apologizing in advance” for the inconveniences that will be caused once the Main Street construction begins.

Courtney said staging for the work between Broadway Street and Mill Street will begin in June, with plans that the work will not prevent the annual parade during Madison Regatta Weekend from using its traditional route on Main Street from Jefferson Street to Cragmont Street.

Both Madison Regatta President Kyle Bipes and Chautauqua Festival of Art Coordinator Kara Hinze were in attendance, each receiving approvals for street closings for those events. During Regatta, there’s not just the parade but the annual waterball fight that’s held on Main Street. For the Chautauqua, in good weather years, there are typically 40,000 people in downtown Madison to attend that event.

Hinze said the Chautauqua will offer a shuttle service from the parking lot at Madison Consolidated High School which patrons will be encouraged to utilize.

Courtney agreed that announcements will need to be made for people coming to events to be aware of the construction on Main Street. “There’s no way around it, honestly. We’ll have to figure out the details,” he said.

The Transfer Station Operations (TSO) work will include remodeling and improvements, which Courtney said is the last phase of the TSO’s modernization plan.

Chris Hale, the city’s director of facilities, streets and solid waste, said the project will involve closing the transfer station for approximately 10 days beginning on a Friday and continuing through the next week to the following Monday to encompass two weekends. He said once dates for that closing are determined, there will be announcements made to inform the public in advance.

Hale said initially there had been a request for a 14-day closure of the transfer station. “We worked to narrow that down to a window where it will only affect the public for that one wee.”

City trash service will continue as usual during the full week the transfer station is closed with the city working with Rumpke during that time to ensure no interruption in pickup and transfer of solid waste and recycling.

The timeline for the project includes a pre-construction meeting May 13 with mobilization shortly after that and substantial completion in October. “We’re happy that this is underway, and we are minimizing the inconveniences as much as possible,” Courtney said.

In other business, street closings were approved for the Vintage Thursday in September, along with a request from Sara Ford for closing both sides of Broadway Street surrounding the fountain for her wedding Sept. 19.

A contract of $2,440 was approved with Swank Motion Pictures Inc. to screen five Movies in the Park that will be sponsored to recoup the city’s cost. The movies will be “Hoosiers” on May 23, “Inside Out 2” on June 20, “Madison” on July 2, “Moana 2” on Aug. 1 and “Matilda” on Sept. 19.

There were two task orders for the wastewater and water departments approved with Commonwealth Engineering — one was a renewal for an “on-call” contract to help with permit renewals and industrial pre-treatment program that’s up to $50,000, and the other was for the Wellhead Protection Plan five-year update to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management at $39,000.