City will detail Breen Avenue construction tonight

The sun is shining and the flowers are blooming, so has road construction season finally started?

Well, the big projects being undertaken by the city – reconstructing Breen Avenue and resurfacing Washington Street – will wait a couple of months. As for smaller road projects, the city is still hashing out its 2010-11 budget, meaning no projects are set in stone, or asphalt, until after June 30.

The city Engineering Department will host a preconstruction meeting for Breen Avenue residents at 7 p.m. tonight in City Hall. Engineer Kurt W. Hauk is expected to outline what work will be completed where, and when. While the City Council narrowly passed a $2.3 million bonding ordinance for the project in March, bids from construction companies are due Monday, so a final tab for the project has not yet been calculated.

The city still has about half of the $500,000 from the stimulus it was awarded by the feds last year for road work. The city resurfaces the 100 and 200 blocks of Arsenal Street in September and is scheduled to do the same on Washington Street, from the south city limit to Flower Avenue, this summer.

Public Works Superintendent Eugene P. Hayes has told me he will wait for school to get out for summer before any work begins on the Washington Street project. After all, a full size school bus loaded with children isn’t exactly good for freshly poured asphalt.

National Grid has closed portions of Barben Avenue and will continue to do so block by block this summer while it upgrades a gas main in the right of way.

The Times will keep an eye on paving projects this summer. If you have any tips, questions or concerns while you’re on the road, feel free to e-mail me or give me a buzz at 661-2383.