Covington’s Madison Avenue and 7th Street Streetscape projects are moving forward, albeit at a slower pace than initially anticipated. The project has been affected by a number of snags that have delayed the project’s progress.
Chris Clemons, senior engineer at WSP USA Inc., and Rich Anthony, assistant project manager for Covington, spoke at the most recent Covington City Commissioners meeting to update city officials and the public on the project’s current status.
“It will make one year since we asked the KYTC to review these plans,” said Covington Mayor Joe Meyer. “Then the KYTC get another bite at the apple. Who knows how long that’s going to take? It’s not unreasonable to say we may go through this entire year before the construction period this summer, without even being able to put these things out for bid. What impact is this having on our budgets? I assume the cost of this is way higher today than it would’ve been a year or two ago.”
The projects are currently pending approval from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Once WSP receives KYTC approval, they will be able to advertise both of the projects for bid.
WSP began working on the projects in the spring of 2020, and progressed through the preliminary design phase until the fall of 2020. From there, WSP held a public forum. The information gathered at the public forum was used in collaboration with the design team to finish a final design. The final design for the projects were completed in the spring of 2021.
Madison Avenue Streetscape
The proposed Madison Avenue Streetscape corridor will run from 8th Street south to 11th Street. The proposed new features will be new sidewalks, gutters, traffic signals, lighting, pavement resurfacing. The project will move the above ground utilities to below the ground.
The Madison Avenue project’s current status is as follows:
- Finalize utility coordination with Lumen
“We were finalizing utility coordination,” Clemons said. “We had one utility company that came to the game pretty late. We did just received their proposed design late last week. Our design team now is working on incorporating that into the project.
- Incorporate final utility designs into the streetscape plans
- Incorporate final KYTC plan comments into the final plan
- Resubmit final plans & specifications
- Receive final approvals from KYTC
- Advertise projects for bids
7th Street Streetscape
The proposed 7th Street Streetscape corridor will run from Washington Street over to Greenup Street. It includes the same proposed amenities and features as the Madison Avenue Streetscape.
The 7th Street project will reconfigure the parking between Washington Street and Madison Avenue. WSP’s plan is to add more parking spaces. There will also be parking meters installed along the street.
The Madison Avenue project’s current status is as follows:
- Incorporate final KYTC plan comments into the final plan
- Resubmit final plans & specifications
- Receive final approvals from KYTC
- Advertise projects for bids
“To date, the projects have run concurrently. Now, we are just a little bit further ahead with 7th Street,” Clemons said.
The 7th Street project did not run into the same utility conflicts with Lumen that is hindering the Madison Avenue project.
Clemons said WSP is hoping to submit their final plans to the KYTC “soon”. Clemons also said WSP does not have a definitive timeline at this moment. WSP anticipates they will be able to get the final plans over to the KYTC by the end of April.
“Once it gets to KYTC, they have to go through their process of approvals,” Clemons said. “We’ve already received the environmental approval, so that is done. It will basically just be the plans and specification approval from there.”
The KYTC has requested breakaway poles. According to Clemons, the KYTC requested this because there are some sections of the projects that are along state routes. The KYTC also had concerns about the lighting level with the new street lights.
“Here on Madison Avenue, after the final plans were completed and submitted to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in May of 2021, somehow six, or seven, or eight months later, some new utility has appeared,” Meyer said. “Now all of a sudden we have to scramble about some sort of deal to relocate them (Lumen).”
Clemons said WSP was not aware Lumen was on the Duke Energy utility poles that are located in Covington.
