Madison awards contracts for widening roads, constructing Wall Triana multi-use path

MADISON – A few significant road projects in Madison got the green light Monday night when the city council awarded three construction contracts. The projects include widening a portion of Sullivan Street, Hughes Road and building a multi-path along a section of Wall Triana Highway.

Hughes Road Widening

Carcel and G Construction LLC was awarded the contract for the Hughes Road project. They had submitted a bid of $5,954,822.30.

“This project will widen a segment of Hughes Road from Plaza Blvd. to Millsford Road from a three-lane to a five lane, configuration with multi-use paths on both sides,” Chynoweth explained.

The portion that will be widened is one-mile in length, and will consist of four 11-foot wide lanes for traffic and a 12-foot center turn lane.

The project’s main objective is to combat some of the existing traffic congestion. Chynoweth has said traffic varies from 20,000-25,000 cars each day and is heaviest on the south part of Hughes Road.

“What we’re doing is taking the worst congestion of Hughes Road and passing it through what is the checkpoint right now, Eastview Drive, and giving about 1,000 feet north of Eastview Drive for those lanes to transition down to a single lane again,” he said at a public hearing about the project in Dec. “That will take care of our morning and evening traffic congestion on that section of road.”

In addition to widening the road, the project’s plans include an 8-foot-wide multi-use path on either side. The design also features a curb and gutter that will provide “a little extra safety.”

The city will also build a sidewalk along Plaza Blvd from Hughes Road to the Madison Public Library sidewalk.

Chynoweth also noted that Hughes Road was originally designed to be a five-lane road, and though citizens convinced the City to build it with only three lanes, they still put the five-lane road base in. “We knew what the traffic volume was, we sized the roads correctly, but we didn’t get to build it,” he said. Chynoweth also explained that the City already owns a 120-foot-wide right of way down the length of Hughes Road.

“I wish we could do all of Hughes Road all the way up to 72, but we can’t,” Chynoweth said at the hearing. “We just have to take it a piece at a time.”

The project is expected to take 18 months to complete.

Sullivan Street Widening

Reed Contracting Services, Inc. was awarded a $5,734,987.38 contract for widening a half-mile portion of Sullivan Street from a three-lane roadway to five lanes. “This will widen the street from Spenryn Drive to Kyser Blvd. with sidewalks on both sides,” said Madison engineering director Gary Chynoweth.

The sidewalks will be added from West Dublin to Kyser Blvd. The west side will feature a 5-foot sidewalk, while the east side will feature a 10-foot asphalt multi-use path.

Chynoweth said the project also calls for three new traffic signals – where Sullivan Street insects with Royal Drive, West Dublin and Kyser Blvd.

The project is expected to take 18 months, but a starting date has not been decided.

Wall Triana Multi-Use Path

The third project that received the green light Monday night was the highly anticipated Wall-Triana multi-use path. The contract went to SJ&L General Contractor, LLC for $1,286,130.

The project calls for the construction of an 8-foot wide, 1.5 mile long, paved multi-use path along the west side of Wall Triana from Brownsferry Road to Gillespie Road.

Madison Mayor Paul Finley had hoped to keep the project within $1 million, but was unsuccessful after two bid attempts. The first attempt was rejected in April after the bids came in too high.

“We had looked at about $1 million for that project. It came in at $1.6 million,” Madison Mayor Paul Finley told the city council members at the time. He said with the large amount of construction projects already underway in our area, the cost of other construction projects continue to rise.

The city’s engineering department under Chynoweth reconfigured aspects of the project in hopes of bringing it within budget, but a second attempt produced no bids for the project. This gave the city an opportunity to negotiate, which resulted in an informal bid by SJ&L.

“I am thrilled,” District 1 city councilwoman Maura Wroblewski said Monday night. “Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard on this.”

The Wall Triana project was one of the first objectives Wroblewski set her sights on accomplishing when she came into office in 2016.

“This is really a big deal,” said District 6 councilman Gerald Clark. “To me this about safety. I’m glad we finally got it.”

Residents living along that portion of Wall Triana have long since argued that the project was needed to provide an off-road path along Wall Triana, allowing for a safer means of pedestrian and bike travel along the roadway.

After congratulating Wroblewski and recognizing the hard work that was put into making the project a reality, District 3 councilman Teddy Powell said he was concerned about sacrifices that had to be made in other areas to pay for it.

“I’m happy for the project, but I am not happy at the way we are having to sacrifice some road here, some road there. There’s a long list of sidewalks we could do, and I think there were other projects we could have looked at as well,” he said before voting against the project.

The Wall Triana multi-use path is expected to take 12 months to complete.

The funds for the projects comes from $20 million the city borrowed last year for capital improvement projects through a municipal bond placement.