Update on Rudisill-Broadway Closure

 Representatives from five neighborhoods met with City Utilities for an update on the Rudisill-Broadway sewer consolidation work that began last summer and has caused detours through Southwood Park and Oakdale. City Utilities presented two options for input.The first was partially opening the Broadway/Rudisill intersection in early June.  Traffic would have been restricted to two lanes through through a very narrow passage.  It would have been subject to periodic detours.  This option did not reopen Old Mill Road to Rudisill.  This option would have extended road work until February 2021.The second option was allowing Rudisill-Broadway to remain closed - as it is currently - until September 2020 to allow almost all work to be completed more quickly and more safely.  This would allow repairs to the Hartman Road sewer to be completed in this stage of construction, helping avoid a possible emergency situation if it would fail during a delay.The unanimous recommendation from all the involved associations was to keep the road closed to allow work to continue.  This will avoid on-again, off-again detours.  This will allow the full reopening of all roads and trails in September 2020 if work continues progressing without delays.  Multiple concerns about landscape restoration, traffic volumes, speeding concerns, and the need for police patrols were voiced to City Utilities.Historic Southwood Park believes this sharing of information and input regarding options is how infrastructure progress should be communicated to neighborhoods.  We hope other future City Utilities projects follow this model.Steve McCordBoard President Please read the following press release from City Utilities for more information.  All photos are courtesy of City Utilities. 

CITY UTILITIES PRESS RELEASE FOLLOWS:  The Rudisill-Broadway consolidation sewer project is progressing well. You may remember the 18-month project necessitated completely closing the intersection of Rudisill/Broadway for ten months.   

The project encountered early delays when the intersection was closed in mid-July of 2019. 

•         The planned water main relocation project was delayed by two weeks because of part shortages. 

•         A sizeable underground tank was discovered during the early construction. It had to be excavated and removed – another two-week delay. 

•         Heavy rains created flooding in the construction area delaying progress for a total of eight days. 

These delays meant that project construction had minimal progression for about five and a half weeks, but crews have worked to catch up, and today the project is nearly 70 percent complete. 

On Thursday, May 14, 2020, City Utilities hosted a Zoom meeting for the presidents of the five closest neighborhoods-- Southwood Park, Foster Park, West Rudisill, Illsley Place and Oakdale, plus a representative from the Broadway Business Association. 

The City shared that Rudisill/Broadway could reopen in early June with one lane in each direction and that the work in the rest of the area would go on for the next eight months. The lane openings would be between Bluffton Road and West Rudisill Boulevard. This change would create tight or possibly impassable pedestrian access on the northeast corner of Broadway and Rudisill, and the trail would remain closed.  Additionally, while the motor vehicle traffic would be able to travel on this stretch of road, access to Foster Park would still be re-routed on Lexington Avenue to Hartman Road. 

Because the City understands the challenges this has placed on the neighborhoods, they presented an additional option. This option would keep the entire intersection closed through early September, when the whole project would wrap-up and the streets and trail would reopen. 

This option would also allow some additional needed work that might restrict street access in 2021.  

Crews have discovered that a 36-inch sewer pipe needs a liner reinforcement and that additional storm sewers would help with street flooding on the corner of the intersection. This extra work can coincide if the full street closure remains through September. 

Neighborhood leaders believe finishing all utility work and paving in early September of 2020 is a better option than having lanes opened and the project going into February of next year.  

The City will be meeting with the contractor early next week to firm up a commitment for the option to keep the intersection closed and finish the project in September. 

Frank Suárez,  Director of Public Information

Division of Public Works and City Utilities,  City of Fort Wayne