ST. PAUL - The Town of St. Paul council has approved about $102,000 to wrap up some unexpected work along 57th Street.
The road was rebuilt last year, as part of a joint project with the County of St. Paul that also saw Twp Rd 582 rebuilt. Significant rainfall in June resulted in the failure of three accesses along 57th Street, reported Town of St. Paul CAO Steven Jeffery, speaking to council at the Aug. 22 council meeting.
"During this year's budgeting process and into the spring of 2022, it was the Town's position that no further costs other than what was expected at that time would be necessary to apply to this project," said Jeffery. "As we proceeded into the summer months... with the rainfall that we had in June, it became evident that three access approaches had been experiencing failures."
After looking into the issue with the contractor and engineers, it was determined that improvements in the three affected areas should be made in order to protect the integrity of the actual road surface of 57th Street.
"In other words, if left alone and not handled, the degradation of these access approaches would worsen and migrate into the road surface as these issues are a result of standing water not effectively leaving the site," explained the CAO. "It is important to note that the improvements are flagged as deficiencies in the project but are not a result of bad workmanship on anyone's part, therefore, this work is flagged as an extra work order where the responsibility to rectify these issues still falls on the contractors of the project but also on the Town to pay for the improvements."
The County of St. Paul is responsible for the base work and E-Construction will be responsible for the asphalt portion.
"Both parties are to be compensated by the Town for the undertaking of this work," said Jeffery.
When discussion the matter with council, Jeffery noted that work had actually already started, because the contractors were available and it was advantageous to begin quickly. Jeffery said there was no doubt the accesses would continue to fail, and it is really a matter of where the money would be taken from to do the work.
Coun. Norm Noel expressed his disappointment in the fact that the professionals who were involved in the project had not caught the issues earlier, since costs would have likely been lower had the work been done last season.
The work being done will also include paving a "pullout" portion along a hydrant for ease of access for Town staff and "paving the aprons of the Iron Horse Trail to create a uniform entrance which which also help with water control and rocks not coming onto 57th Street from ATVs," explained Jeffery.
The CAO noted that an approved Capital project to relining problem sewers formed $150,000 commitment from Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funds, but because of a shortage in resin in North America, the project cannot be done in 2022.
"It is my recommendation that 57th street be given priority and utilize $102,000 of these funds in order to complete this necessary work. The remaining $48,000 will be applied to the street lighting project that has been extended by council at a previous meeting," said Jeffery.
Council approved motions to proceed with the work along 57th Street, and allocated the remaining MSI funds to the street lighting project that had previously been discussed.
