By Joe Bachman
Multimedia Editor

STEVENS POINT — Crews will start work on the Stanley Street restripe next week, resulting in its closure for one day.

The highly contested project was approved in October of 2018, as council members would move from a bidding process to favoring completion of the project in-house. To read our award-winning article on the topic of Stanley Street and road diets, click here.

This new road design will include two travel lanes, one in each direction, and a center two-way left turn lane. This type of restriping is commonly referred to as a “road diet”.

The project will start on Monday, Aug. 5, according to a city release. A full closure of Stanley Street will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 6.

According to Mayor Mike Wiza, the decision was made due to a member of city crews taking a position elsewhere.

“The primary person who was trained for that position is leaving,” said Wiza. “The two options were ‘wait until we can get someone else trained, which will probably take us well into October or longer — or we’ll just do it next week.'”

“Because we don’t have the time for that, we have to close the road completely for a day.” he added.

It is important to note that the city expects the road to be closed for only one day — two at the absolute most, pending inclement weather.

Detour

The city has released a detour for traffic through the duration of the project. According to the city, Stanley Street will be closed at the North Point Drive/Green Avenue intersection and again at Michigan Avenue. These detours will also be utilized for entry to Stanley Street businesses.

A detour map is available below:

Courtesy: City of Stevens Point

Residential Notice

Residents will be receiving notice of the day-long project. To read the full letter slated to be sent to Stanley Street residents, check out the following link. Stanley Street Letter 7-31-19 Combined

Parking

Parking restrictions on nearby streets will be lifted for the duration of the project. This will allow people who can’t get to their driveway that day to park on side streets.

The city released more information on the specifics of the project, which can be viewed in its entirety below:

City release

The restriping will require painting against the normal flow of traffic, the City plans to close Stanley Street while painting the long lines to provide for the safety of City staff and the traveling public.  Other elements of work will happen outside of the closure and include the installation of the signage, painting of crosswalks and other pavement markings, removal of old paint markings and similar work elements.

Stanley Street will be closed at the North Point Drive/Green Avenue intersection and again at Michigan Avenue.  Traffic at Minnesota Avenue will be allowed to cross Stanley Street, but access to Stanley Street will not be allowed.  Local traffic will be required to take alternate routes to get to their destination. A detour for through traffic will be set up following North Point Drive and Michigan Avenue.  Please see the attached map for closure limits and alternate routes.

It is anticipated that the long lines can be completed within one day and is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 6, however the work cannot be performed if there is adverse weather. If the work cannot be completed as scheduled, it will be done on the next weather permitting day. Overnight and time limited parking restrictions will be lifted on surrounding streets starting Monday, Aug. 5 to allow residents and patrons to park off premises.  

The City will have an onsite project manager to oversee the operations during the closure.  Residents and businesses should contact Joe Skibinski, the City’s Project Manager with any issues they may have during the closure.  The City will make every reasonable effort to accommodate property owners and tenants along Stanley Street with any special or unforeseen needs.  Joe can be reached at 715-340-1792. For general questions regarding the work, individuals should call the Stevens Point Engineering Office at 715-346-1561.