Published: April 23, 2008 11:35 am      

New Albany's Spring St. Hill Road may reopen

Mayor Doug England’s administration is looking to make good on a campaign promise to start reconstruction of Spring Street Hill Road.

The road has been closed for nearly four years, and during his recent State of the City address, the mayor again renewed his commitment to having it reopen.

On Tuesday, up to $35,000 for initial engineering work through the Louisville firm Jacobi, Toombs and Lanz Inc.. was approved by the Board of Public Works and Safety.

The money will be underwritten through city funds until a tax-increment-financing, or TIF, district extension can be approved through the Redevelopment Commission, according to deputy mayor and director of development Carl Malysz.

TIF money — likely from the State Street parking garage area — would be used to fund the improvements for Spring Street Hill Road, if approved. That money would replenish the city funds being used for the initial engineering costs.

“This process is going to take a little time,” Malysz said. “Mayor England wants to get the engineering under way right away.”

Heavy rains in 2004 were blamed for creating erosion along the steep road. There also are numerous cracks along the road that led to it being condemned and six poles were added to block its entrance.

A date for when construction will start has not been given, as officials are waiting the results of the initial engineering work.



Also at the meeting

• The board approved street closures for Vectren Energy to rehabilitate natural gas lines, though somewhat reluctantly. Board President Matt Denison said officials had hoped to be on the same page with all utility companies planning projects for this year, so they would not come on the heels of city-sponsored improvements.

Vectren gained approval to close sections of Silver Street between East Main and East Market streets beginning Thursday. A spokeswoman with the company said the project should take two weeks — if Mother Nature cooperates — to finish. During that time period, there also will be work completed on nearby Willow Avenue.

The city has been doing improvements on Silver Street and John Rosenbarger, director of public works, said plans called for another coat of surfacing to be put on the street this week.

Malysz said Vectren had been notified of the city work and had not mentioned the pipeline repairs previously. He said the administration is “very concerned” about utility companies tearing up roads and sidewalks after residents have already been inconvenienced with city projects.

Denison said coinciding utility and city work is always the best procedure.

“It’s a little frustrating to be presented with this,” Denison said.

The spokeswoman said Vectren had not planned on doing the improvements until late summer, but were forced to change plans after evaluations showed Silver Street had the worst segment of pipes in New Albany.

The board approved the closures with the stipulations that Vectren must provide detour plans and notify residents. Miller Pipeline is the contractor who will complete the work for Vectren.

• Engineer Nathan Grimes told the board he is about 95 percent done with the evaluation of New Albany streets. He was hired last month to complete a street survey that would help the administration and city council prioritize roads in need of resurfacing.