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Project from Prospect Street to Overpass Drive is ‘food for thought,’ Webster City mayor says

WEBSTER CITY — A long stretch of Second Street in Webster City would be rebuilt in a roughly $9 million project that would take a couple years to complete.

The concept of rebuilding that road between Prospect Street and Overpass Drive was introduced to the City Council Monday evening.

The method of paying for the project and the time frame for doing it has not been determined.

”This being a major thoroughfare, it’s pretty important to get this done,” Mayor John Hawkins said.

He said the project is ”food for thought, more than anything, at this point.”

”There’s definitely aging infrastructure there,” Councilman Logan Welch said. ”I think just driving on it we can tell that road has seen better days.”

The concept for the project presented Monday by Public Works Director Ken Wetzler calls for doing the job in two phases. The first phase would include the section between Prospect and Beach streets. That phase is estimated to cost $5.6 million.

The second phase would be from Beach Street to Overpass Drive. It’s estimated to cost $3.4 million.

Each phase would include complete reconstruction of the street, new 12-inch diameter water mains, new 15-inch diameter sanitary sewers, storm sewers, street lights and sidewalks.

Wetzler said the new road surface should be concrete because of the amount of traffic it carries.

He said the infrastrutcure below the road surface was installed in the 1950s. The current water main, he said, is a 4-inch diameter cast iron pipe.

”To me it seems miraclous that a 4-inch water main can supply water through there,” he said.

A combination of general obligation bonds and economic development funds could be used to pay for the job. However, using general obligation bonds would raise property taxes, according to Hawkins.

Wetzler said it would be impossible to do any work on the project this year.

”We’ve missed this construction season,” he said.

The council directed the city staff to prepare an amendment to an existing contract with Snyder & Associates, of Ankeny, under which the engineering firm would prepare preliminary plans for the project. That amendment will be presented to the council for consideration at a future meeting. The council took no other action on the proposal.

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