Residents hear of upcoming repair work

By BRYAN HELLIOS

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Ironwood — Impacted residents were informed of upcoming repair work scheduled on Lawrence and Francis streets during a public listening session held on Wednesday at the Ironwood Memorial Building.

From the middle of May until the end of July work crews will be replacing water and sanitary sewer mains as well as sidewalks and roads in the in the 100th block of West Francis and one block on Lawrence between Francis and Coolidge.

Paul Anderson, a civil engineer with Coleman Engineering, said residents will experience some “inconveniences,” like lack of access to the driveway, but should not lose any utilities.

“The contractor will hook up temporary water, so that while he has the whole water main shut down at any time you will have water service via a temporary water service line,” he said.

Bob Tervonen, utilities manger for the city of Ironwood, said the city is being proactive and update the lines.

“It's an old cast iron main,” he said. “We want to put ductile iron pipe that's designed to last for a hundred years.”

Tervonen said the new pipes will be eight inches in diameter versus the current six inches. The improved flow will increase the city's firefighting capabilities, he said, which could result in lower insurance premiums for the city.

Another issue updated lines will help solve is the leaks which occur when lines freeze. Tervonen said Ironwood used to repair 50 to 70 leaks per year. After replacing many of the city's lines, he said they now fix “20 at the most.”

“With a brand new system thats done right, we're not going to repair a leak on that anymore,” he said.

Leonora Cloon, an Ironwood resident, said it will be nice to fix the sidewalks because they are in “bad shape.”

She expressed concern about having access to her house during the construction process, but said she realized why the project needed to be completed.

“It will be worth it,” she said. “I just didn't think it would take two and a half months.”