Downtown traffic in MP to be disrupted as construction begins Monday

The City of Mt. Pleasant will begin blocking of streets downtown for construction crews on Monday, April 8, as a part of the ongoing Central Business District Construction.

The construction is to improve the water lines in Mt. Pleasant and make sidewalks ADA Compliant. Similar construction was done on Jefferson Street last year.

'We hope it goes as well as it did last year,” said Brent Schleisman, city administrator. 'We did the sanitary sewer earlier this winter. We're going to try to get the water line in and out of the way, so when we start to remove pavement, it goes as fast as it possibly can.”

Schleisman said construction crews will do their best to keep access to businesses open downtown.

'There might be a few little hiccups, but we'll have ramps put in, and once the sidewalk is poured, it will be open during construction,” Schleisman said. 'Hopefully people won't let that detour them, walk a half a block, and still go to all the businesses open.”

To encourage residents to continue shopping downtown during construction, Main Street Mt. Pleasant is launching a shop local loyalty program. Residents will get a punch card and once they have spent $100 at any downtown business including realtors, lawyers or their dry cleaner, they can bring it in to the Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance for the chance to win prizes, possibly even a trip.

'We learned a lot of things from last year's construction,” said Lisa Oetken, director of Main Street Mt. Pleasant. 'Some things worked, some things didn't. We tried to educate people where the parking lots were downtown. We don't feel that we need to do that again this year.

'We're just taking it up a notch,” Oetken continued. 'Some of this stuff we would do without construction like the shop local loyalty program because we had a tough winter. It was hard on the retailers, and we know that, so we probably would have done some of those promotions anyway.”

Main Street Mt. Pleasant will be hosting more events throughout the spring and summer to remind people to come downtown - despite construction.

In May, Main Street will host a Luau where people can wear their 'ugly Hawaiian shirts,” Oetken said.

Later that month, Main Street will have a Putt Putt Golf Outing throughout the downtown businesses.

In June, Main Street's event will be a space theme. 'There is life in downtown Mt. Pleasant. Come on out,” Oetken said.

'We're always going to be accessible to people. We're going to have fun with it, and we encourage them to have fun with us. It is what it is, and we have to make the best of it,” Oetken said.

Monroe Street will be shut off for westbound traffic from Main Street to Jefferson Street to allow crews room for construction on Monday. Work will begin at the northeast corner of Jefferson Street and Monroe Street in front of Subway and will go east in the north parking area of Monroe Street. There will be dump trucks entering and exiting the work area while hauling off the excavation and bringing granular fill in to backfill the trench.

Construction is estimated to take 10 days per block from installation through testing and reconnecting services. Once the water work is completed on Monroe Street, crews will be moving to Main Street just north of Washington Street in front of the Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance.

Once construction crews move to Main Street, northbound traffic will be shut off on Main Street from Washington Street to Monroe Street. The northbound traffic on Main Street and the westbound traffic on Monroe Street will be closed at the same time.

During the second phase of construction, Mike Nelson Concrete Paving Company will be moving in and starting at the west end of Monroe Street in front of Subway. They will remove seven feet of sidewalk along the businesses and pour back the six foot wide ADA Compliant sidewalk with brick-stamped inserts. There will be wood ramps installed for access to businesses.

Once a block of sidewalk has been placed along the businesses, a snow fence will be installed along the sidewalk to keep people out of the work area. Kinney & Sons will begin removal of the existing street surface from Jefferson Street to Main Street. They will grade for the new paving and place granular subbase, new drainage structures and storm sewer pipes. Once they are done, Mike Nelson Concrete Paving will pour the new pavement.

Once the pavement is complete, the colored concrete area between the new back of curb and six foot sidewalk will be placed.

Work will commence on Main Street while paving is being completed on Monroe Street to get construction around the square completed as soon as possible.