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Show Merchants brace for Main Street construction by Chrisopher Smart If all the sunny weather we've been having lately conjures up summer images of picnics, watermelons, softball and bikinis, then maybe your imagination didn't get quite enough information. Now try this image on for size: The air is filled with dust, the relentless pounding of the jackhammer bites through the hot day, tormenting your throbbing brain. There is no place to park because Main Street has been torn up to install new water and sewer lines. Swede Alley has also been ripped apart and filled with huge trucks and construction equipment for storm drains and a new high rise parking structure. You find a small spot to park somewhere in Snyderville Basin and begin to hoof it into town on your burning and weary feet as dust-ridden sweat drips into your eyes. That scenario might not be too far off the mark because the city in conjunction with the Snyderville Basin Sewage Improvement District and Utah Power and Light plan 10 tear up Main Street from one end to the other this year to lay utility lines The project coula last as long as five-and-a-half months. As Community Development Director Mike Vance explained to the Main Street merchants mer-chants association Tuesday evening, "It's the most inconvenient job I've ever done." Vance added, however, that the project is necessary because the present water lines along Main Street aren't capable of handling a major fire. The city has been planning, for a long time, to replace the water main under the street, according to Vance. He said the project will be coordinated with the Snyderville Basin Sewage Improvement District and Utah Power and Light Company so that all the utilities can be laid under Main Street at the same time. In addition, the Silver Mill Mall will construct two pedestrian tunnels under the street Main Street to A10 - (CdDimttnimiiiiedl ffnDinm . ' Main Street from 1 this summer. According to the manager of the s sewer district, Ed Davis, a sewer line will be put under Main Street where s one does not now exist. That line will be connected to the rest of the sewer at y the intersection of Main and Heber Avenue. s Scott Dixon of Utah Power and Light ' said the power company is planning ahead by laying two five-inch conduits under Main Street. He said that while it isn't essential presently, the power ' company wants to be ready to install power lines beneath the street when ' the Silver Mill Mall and Swede Alley improvements are completed. s The proposed construction is scheduled sched-uled to start at the beginning of s March, and finish in September, Vance told the merchants. However, ' many of the merchants present asked Vance to delay construction. ' Helen Alvarez, representing the Timberhaus Ski Shop, told Vance and S the group of local business people that March was one of the most important sales periods of the year. The group as a whole urged Vance to postpone the construction until April. They also asked him if there were ways to speed the construction process. According to the plan, Vance said, 200-foot sections of Main Street would be torn up at a time. In this way, he said, some travel would still be possible on Main Street. As the utility lines are laid and the street filled in, the sidewalk on the west side of Main Street will also be replaced. Vance said it might be possible to finish construction sooner if Main Street were completely closed and the entire length torn up at once. But he added that he didn't know exactly how much time that would save. Among the problems to be encountered by the massive project is a layer of reinforced concrete eight to 18 inches thick beneath the pavement through core samples taken last fall, Vance said. According to the proposal the concrete will be cut with a special saw and then lifted out, precluding the need for jack hammers. Other problems to be encountered are the spring runoff, the Fourth of July Parade and the Art Festival. The city hopes to divert some of the runoff out of Poison Creek, in Swede Alley, Vance said, to help minimize flooding problems. There are plans now to move the Fourth of July Parade to Park Avenue. And the street can be temporarily filled in and construction equipment moved to make room for the Art Festival the first weekend in . August, he said. Most of Swede Alley will be left open during the Main Street construction, construc-tion, according to John Eskelin of the City Planning Department. But he added that the southern end of Swede Alley will become a construction zone beginning the first part of June. A parking structure, being built in conjunction with the Silver Mill Mall now going in on Main Street, will provide 220 parking spaces when complete. That project will continue through November, he said. The expense of tearing up Main Street and then replacing it will be shared with the sewer district and the UP&L, Vance said. |