Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
With the major reconstruction of 1st Street in Havre complete, the last phase of a project on 5th Avenue started Wednesday. Gary Berg, Montana Department of Transportation project manager, said the removal of some of the pavement in preparation for laying new pavement on the thoroughfare started on the 100 Block of 5th Avenue. Berg said the rotomilling will take off part of the pavement on each side of the street, tapering from about 6 feet out down to the curb and gutter. That work should not impact access from side streets, he said. That work is expected to be completed today, he said. The rotomilling started on the west side of 5th Avenue at the alley between 1st and 2nd streets, where the repaving completed for the 1st Street project ended. The project extends 1.9 miles to the south end of town. The crews will be working their way back rotomilling the rest of the east side of the avenue today, Berg said. The paving of the avenue is expected to begin next week, with short delays on side access as the paving is laid. “The paving itself should only take three or four days,” Berg said. “It should be relatively smooth and painless.” He said the paving will close access streets on one side of the avenue at a time, with two or three streets closed at a time. The streets are expected to be closed for about three hours at a time, he said, depending on how long it takes the new pavement to cool. The repaving of the avenue includes new lane configurations, with two-way left turns installed. Havre Mayor Bob Rice said this morning that the Havre City Council passed an ordinance last year approving the elimination of some parking on 5th Avenue to make way for the turning lanes. The project started early in August, with the initial work replacing some sidewalks and gutters and installing handicap-accessible entrances from crosswalks to the sidewalks. Berg said the curb and gutter work is completed and some of the sidewalk work is also completed, with all of the work expected to be done by the end of next week. After the massive project rebuilding U. S. Highway 2 where it runs through Havre as 1st Street, the delays from this project should be relatively minor, Berg said. “It should be a piece of cake for the public after the two years on 1st Street,” he said.
