A new, but small, city road was supposed to see construction begin before winter, but now, work won’t be taking place until several months into 2015, Bridgeport City Engineer Tom Brown confirmed.

 

In July, City Council approved funding for the road, which is currently the grassed area beside the Civic Center’s parking lot. That area already allows vehicles to travel through for maintenance work, events and to occasionally drop off elderly or physically challenged individuals to the back of the building. The plan is to have a road put in all the way to the back side of the City Pool.

 

Work on the road, which will be done by city staff, actually began earlier this year before it was halted, not because of any problems. Rather, Brown believes it is a situation involving simple good logic.

 

“The new road between the existing parking lot at the (Benedum) Civic Center and the city pool will still be built, but it wouldn’t make sense to do it now due to other work that is about to take place in that area,” Brown said.

 

“We’re getting ready to do major work on the retaining wall behind the pool, and that is the same area where we’re going to have heavy equipment and materials going over for a few months. It wouldn’t make sense to have a brand new road subject to the amount of heavy trucks and equipment that will be in that area soon. It would be a waste of time, money and energy.”

 

Brown said although he’s not sure what all will be used by the contractor who will fix the wall, he said it’s possible that an excavator, an end loader and skid steers – and other items – could be going back and forth through that area.

 

“I’d like to think once the pool wall is finished we can bring our crews in to install the road and have it done by the end of April,” said Brown. “We’re doing it in-house, and we’re planning on putting in a concrete roadway.”

 

Brown said concrete provides a longer life expectancy for a road’s surface, and the cost of the concrete versus asphalt is roughly the same. He said the life expectancy of the road should be as long as 30 years, particularly considering the road will see very limited traffic.

 

The road will allow for senior citizens to have immediate access to an area where they often meet. They can be dropped off there and picked up without worrying about parking issues. Currently, some deliveries are done in that area and some seniors are driven across the grass as well, which is often a muddy mess.

 

 “In the last several years, that area has been getting much worse,” Parks and Recreation Director Don Burton said previously about the project. “Any time it rains and people drive back there you have ruts and mud and it just takes longer and longer for the mud to clear up. It’s an ongoing issue that we’ve been fighting for some time.”

 

The road will be 160 feet long by 10 feet wide. It will begin where there is an opening between the small concrete parking lot retaining wall and go all the way back to the earth ramp that leads into the Bridgeport City Pool. The concrete retaining wall has been partially removed. Another project involving the replacement and upgrade of a sewer line ahead of the road being installed is already complete.