$4.4M project to rebuild, resurface Brown Street approved

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DAYTON — The City Commission has approved a $4.4 million contract to rebuild and resurface Brown Street from Miami Valley Hospital to Irving Street at the south end of the University of Dayton campus.

The project, slated for completion in August 2013 “will be a key connector” in the fast-growing area, Deputy City Manager Stanley Earley said Tuesday.

Major traffic delays are expected during construction because the project is on a very aggressive construction schedule, according to Steve Finke, assistant director of public works.

“It will be tricky. We are doing it in stages and want to have the rebuilt section from Caldwell to Stewart done by August when UD opens and the new student housing on Brown Street will be useable,” he said.

The hospital, the university and the city are participating in the project. It is the companion piece to complement the completed rebuilding of Stewart Street, including the Stewart Street bridge, to Brown, Earley said.

“We’ve been working with UD, Holy Angels and area businesses,” Finke said.

According to the proposed contract with Sunesis Construction Company of West Chester, money for the project is coming from state and federal funds.

The contract calls for the rebuilding of Brown Street — tearing away and replacing the current street surface, underlay and base — from Wyoming to Caldwell Street. It also includes resurfacing the current street surface from Caldwell south to Irving, and from Wyoming north to Oak Street.

Included in the street rebuilding are new curbs, gutters and sidewalks, the replacement of current buried utility lines — plus moving power and other overhead lines underground — street signs and signals, and the addition of a bike lane.

UD has expanded south from Stewart along Brown Street constructing more student housing. The university also has plans to expand west from Brown on Stewart across Main Street toward the river on land it purchased from NCR. General Electric is building a research facility on land leased from the university on Patterson Boulevard, just south of Stewart. Cox Media Group Ohio relocated the Dayton Daily News, WHIO-TV and its radio stations to a former NCR building on South Main Street several years ago.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2290 or dpage@Dayton DailyNews.com.