Another extended closure coming on Osprey Avenue

Beginning next June, the city will once again close a portion of Osprey Avenue near Hudson Bayou for nine months as crews work to complete the construction of Lift Station 87.

The city is in the midst of the second phase of a three-phase plan to build the new wastewater facility on Mound Street in Luke Wood Park. The city hopes to complete the construction of Lift Station 87 in March 2021. On Dec. 5, the Lift Station 87 project team hosted a community workshop to update residents on construction plans and collect public input ahead of the last steps of the construction process.

The Osprey Avenue closure is scheduled to go into effect next summer. Crews will be making utility connections and installing sewer mains for the lift station. Through traffic on Osprey Avenue will be restricted from Bay Street to Bahia Vista Street during this construction period.

The city previously closed a portion of Osprey Avenue for Lift Station 87 construction between August 2016 and July 2017. At the Dec. 5 workshop, project manager Robert Garland with engineering firm McKim and Creed said the upcoming closure would seek to replicate elements of the last closure.

Although he acknowledged that closing the street was an inconvenience, Garland said the project team received some positive feedback from residents in the area for how it established detours and set up temporary speed tables to divert traffic from neighborhoods. Garland said the city intended to post signs directing drivers to U.S. 41 and to once again install speed tables on residential streets.

“Some people will cut through the neighborhoods,” Garland said. “They know the shortcuts. We’re going to try to cut them off at the pass, if we can.”

The city is still finalizing a plan and searching for a contractor for the third phase of the project, set to begin in early 2020. Crews will install underground wastewater, sewer and water main infrastructure in the area near the lift station site on Osprey Avenue, Alta Vista Street, Pomelo Avenue and Pomelo Place. That work is set to significantly impact residents in the area, potentially requiring the entirety of the right of way in front of homes to be blocked off for construction.

Garland said that the project team is working to engage with residents in the area to learn their priorities before a schedule is set for phase three, including whether they wanted to see a more aggressive timeline or a construction plan that sought to minimize the number of homes affected at any given time.

Some residents at the Dec. 5 workshop asked for more details and said they didn’t have enough information about the options under consideration. Representatives for the project team said they would produce the requested information and intended to set up one-on-one meetings with residents in the phase three construction area.

Earlier this year, the city estimated the costs associated with the Lift Station 87 construction between $62.9 million and $67.9 million. The city first selected a contractor for the project in 2011 and targeted a completion date of late 2012. The city ultimately fired that contractor and hired McKim and Creed to oversee the project in 2013. When complete, Lift Station 87 will handle one-third of the city’s wastewater.

Garland acknowledged the challenges and inconveniences associated with the project, but he expressed optimism that the construction will finally reach its conclusion in a little more than a year.

“We’re doing the best we can to get to the end of this project,” Garland said.