Lake Boulevard and Broad Street Resurfacing Project

May 6, 2024 Brief Update

The City just received notification from CSX that the Broad Street RR Crossing won’t start until Thursday.  Lake Boulevard will remain closed to through traffic, the only exception being east-west traffic will be maintained on Park Street.

The new manhole castings will be installed from north to south as noted in the update yesterday, but that work won’t start until Wednesday because the casting delivery was delayed.

May 5, 2024 Project Update

Rieth-Riley, and their subcontractors made substantial progress this past week, this included completion of the concrete ramps and sidewalks, followed by milling and resurfacing of Lake Boulevard and Broad Street.  While the road work appears to be complete, it is not, and for that reason barricades will remain up to limit the access to local traffic with one exception.

Park Street is currently open to through traffic to maintain access to the Lions Park Drive area because CSX Transportation plans to close the Broad Street railroad crossing as early as Monday, May 6, 2024 to complete rail tie replacement and paving work.  CSX informed the City that they expect to complete this work on Wednesday, May 8, 2024.  Once CSX completes their work, expect the barricades to go back up on Park Street to allow the final work items to be completed.

Remaining Work

The work that remains includes the following items.

• Pavement markings*
• Installation of new manhole covers
• Restoration of green space areas

The installation of the manhole castings/covers will take more than a week to complete.  Rieth-Riley plans to start from north and work south on this process which requires the pavement to be cut using a circular saw, the manhole casting frame to be set, and then concrete poured and finished around it.  Again, it is important to respect the barricades and cones and follow the detour route for the safety of the workers.  The road closure is also needed to provide cure time for the concrete around the manhole covers.

The reason pavement marking has an asterisk is because the centerline on Lake Boulevard will be recessed to better withstand winter snow plowing operations.  The process requires the centerline to be temporarily painted, followed by a very shallow mill, after that the final centerline will be painted in the recess created by the mill.

Blossomtime Parade – Lake Boulevard Detour Route

Lake Boulevard will be opened as the detour route during the Blossomtime Parade on Saturday, May 11 when Main Street is closed.  As stated above, we don’t expect the project to be fully complete until the week of May 13 at the earliest.  So, while residential driveways fronting on Lake Boulevard should be accessible for the remainder of the project, Lake Boulevard will continue to be active construction zone until all work items are completed.

Please feel free contact Project Engineer Tim Drews, email: tdrews@abonmarche.com, telephone: 269-876-9286 or City Engineer Tim Zebell email: tzebell@sjcity.com, telephone: 269-985-0339 with questions or concerns.

General Project Information

The Lake Boulevard and Broad Street Resurfacing Project is scheduled to commence on April 1, 2024.  The construction will include Lake Boulevard from Hatch Street to Ship Street and Broad Street from Lake Boulevard to State Street.  The reason the project is being undertaken is to resurface the pavement and to replace sidewalk ramps as needed to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. The resurfacing work consists of a one-course (2” in depth) mill and overlay of hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavement.  The work is expected to be complete by early June.