Politics & Government

Flooding Concerns Force Construction Adjustment

Oak Creek will spend extra money on Drexel Avenue reconstruction project.

Oak Creek will spend up to $47,490 for design changes to the W. Drexel Ave. reconstruction project scheduled for next year.

The changes will be done in large part to help prevent flooding problems, as a stretch of Drexel near 27th Street goes through wetlands composed of poor soils.

City officials said they looked at several different options and concluded that using Geopiers - which improves soil to allow for a roadway to be constructed - would the cheapest. Other options, like a bridge structure at $8 million and a deep excavation at $4.3 million, were non-starters becuase of the high cost, City Engineer Mike Simmons said.

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Aldermen said the city had an obligation to avoid flooding problems on what will become a more congested street, with freeway traffic coming from the new Drexel Interchange.

Mayor Dick Bolender wanted the city of Franklin to pick up a portion of the cost. Though the street is in Oak Creek, the city of Franklin is paying for part of the Drexel Interchange because of the benefits it has for them, and Bolender believed the same should apply in this case.

Find out what's happening in Oak Creekwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Other city officials said there simply wasn't enough time to try and convince Franklin to spend money on it when it was already highly unlikely to happen anyway.

The Common Council approved the measure on a 5-1 vote, with Alderman Mike Toman opposed.

and the new Drexel Interchange is expected to start in 2012.


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