Sylvania water-project plans to be done by city consultant

2/10/2010

Plans for storm sewers, catch basins, and waterlines on several Sylvania streets will be drafted by a city consultant whose hiring city council recently approved.

The $24,122 contract to Northwest Consultants of Sylvania Township for work along a cluster of neighborhood streets that include Graystone, Grenlock, Gregory, and San Reno drives and Gillingham Court is the second engineering design project the city has awarded in recent weeks to prepare for the upcoming construction season.

Also planned is resurfacing of Harroun Road, a project city officials said was postponed for several years because of construction at Flower Hospital. City council awarded that $25,966 design contract last month to Mannik & Smith Group, of Toledo.

Jeff Ballmer, Sylvania's public service director, said the residential-streets project along the city's northern edge has been modified to include replacing six-inch water mains in the area with eight-inch pipes.

That will allow higher water pressure for firefighting and replace aging pipes believed to have several breaks and occasionally release rust into the water supply, he said.

On Harroun, last repaved in 1992, "the pavement is beginning to age, and there is rutting and other problems," Mayor Craig Stough said, but it made sense to wait until heavy vehicles were through working at Flower.

The street's top two inches of pavement will be ground off and two thin replacement layers will be applied, with a fiber-fabric sheet produced by Owens Corning in between them, Mr. Ballmer said.

The fiber fabric "resists cracking - it adds 5 to 6 years to pavement life," he said.

And the top pavement layer, he said, will be an asphalt mixture with ground rubber from recycled tires mixed into it, which provides a quieter ride and also stays blacker longer than regular blacktop does.