The Wellington City Council has given the go-ahead for engineering work to begin on Fair Street.
On Tuesday, the Wellington City Council unanimously approved a resolution authorizing an agreement with Professional Engineering Consultants (PEC) of Wichita to perform engineering services for the amount of $25,000.
In September, the council accepted a proposal from PEC for the preparation of a preliminary design, spending $20,772 to get the Fair Street project started.
PEC will work on the preparation of design plans and specifications including the design of the entire project which will be completed in two phases.
Wellington City Engineer Larry Mangan said Phase one will be the “downstream part” which would include a new 9 by 5 foot concrete box underneath 1st Street which is currently made up of wood. Improvements from the north side of the underpass over to 1st Street — around 230 feet — will be taken out and put back with concrete.
“They will basically shape the concrete so the water will go off into the drainage ditch that is there that goes off to the west,” said Mangan. The lowest part of the road would be moved further south to help get rid of access water in the roadway, he said.
Phase two involves going from the north edge of the overpass about 600 feet further north to the edge of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad property is, Mangan said.
PEC has 90 days to complete the project, the engineer said. From there, bidding will be conducted to see what the price of the construction will be, which Mangan predicts will be close to the range of $375,000 for both phases.
A big chunk of change for a city project, Mangan says even constructing one part of the Fair Street project would help greatly with the city’s most notorious street.
“You can do just phase one, it would be better if you could do it all at the same time,” he said. “Phase one will hopefully address the main flooding problem,”
