Street Rebuild of Thornton

After listening to citizen feedback that major street repairs were needed in Leavenworth, the City Commission decided to invest in a street rebuild for Thornton Street. A design contract, with the intent to rebuild Thornton Street from 10th Avenue to Fifth Street was approved by the City Commission in June 2018. Affinis Corporation won the bid for a design contract. In December, Affinis briefed the City Commission on some possible options for the new street design. The potentially $4 million Thornton Street project three times the City’s annual street repair budget of about $1.3 million a year. To pay for the project, the City will be selling municipal bonds. The City Commission is expected to approve a bid for the general contract sometime in April 2019. The construction portion of the project will likely take two seasons and last into 2020. The design includes stripping the road surface down to the road bed, grading and smoothing the ground in some areas, adding geogrid fabric for stabilization, installing a new roadbed, new asphalt, new curbs and gutters, new storm drainage and new sidewalks. There will also be a new traffic signal system installed at Second Avenue and Thornton, near Anthony Elementary School. 10th Avenue will remain open, but traffic leading to 10th on Thornton Street will be closed.

The construction will require complete road closure for through traffic. Because of this, the City will work with contractors to complete the project in phases. Construction is always weather dependent. A rainy season or early fall could delay the project. If all goes according to schedule, it would be completed sometime in the fall of 2020.