Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
About 85 people attended the special meeting Monday to discuss the reconstruction of U.S. 2
THIS MAP shows the detour for the 2014 reconstruction of Ironwood's Cloverland Drive. Eastbound U.S. 2 traffic will be detoured onto U.S. 51 in Wisconsin, to Silver Street in Hurley, then to McLeod Avenue and Lake Street in Ironwood. Westbound traffic on U.S. 2 in Ironwood will be restricted to one-way.
IRONWOOD - The general contractor for this summer's Ironwood U.S. 2 reconstruction project said Wednesday work on the detour route will begin around the middle of next week.
Tom Schneller, of Snow Country Contracting, Bessemer, addressed about 85 people Wednesday evening at a meeting at the Memorial Building. The session was set up by the Michigan Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the project.
The 2014 work will be from the tourist park to Curry Street.
"We'll make it a successful project," promised Mike Premo, of MDOT's Crystal Falls office.
Business owners had numerous questions about the project and after about an hour of an overview and general questions from the audience, one-on-one discussions followed.
City manager Scott Erickson explained that $1,088,000 of water line and $593,000 of sanitary sewer work will be undertaken in city infrastructure improvements in companion with the rebuild.
Temporary water service will be set up during the summer utility work, but Schneller said businesses shouldn't be out of water for any longer than an hour.
He said when traffic is reduced to one lane around May 19, his company will be able to work on the remaining three lanes. The lanes will be widened by a foot.
Schneller said Snow Country will tackle the work in 2,000-foot increments, working Mondays through Saturdays.
They'll remove the present road surface, then dig down and eventually place 18 inches of sand and six inches of gravel below the new paved surface.
The final paving on the tourist park to Curry Street stretch will occur in September, when curb and gutter work will also be completed, Schneller said.
The project will involve 12,000 truckloads of fill, he said.
He said there will be some blasting, but efforts will be made to hold the noise level down.
Premo said a man he identified only as "Kiper" will be videotaping outside residences and inside, if he is permitted to enter. The videotapes assist in the event of damages caused by the project. Premo said it will be up to the homeowners as to whether the man is allowed in the houses.
There will be four or five MDOT people stationed in Ironwood daily during the project, but Premo said they will be out in the field most days.
The project number is 906-285-7261, or [email protected].
The Daily Globe will publish more stories on project plans, including signage and possible benefits to the downtown, before the work begins.
