UPDATE: Caledonia Adminstrator Says Four Mile Overpass Project Stalled

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UPDATE JAN. 26: Tom Lebak, administrator for the Village, said the project has been delayed and the road likely won't open this year. Sewer and water work is being done, but officials with the Village wanted to start work on the railroad. The problem is that the Village doesn't have two permits they need from Union Pacific to go on their property.

"We don't have those permits. We keep trying and trying and trying..." Lebak said. "There is something about a track plan that they say they don't have that we're trying to track down. But our engineer said we submitted that as part of our overall plan that got approved, which needed to get approved as part of the crossing agreement."

Lebak explained that the cranes are on site and they can't work on the track itself. The worst-case scenario is that the project gets completed by June 2013.

UPDATE Nov. 14: Mike Hayek, the Village Engineer, told the Public Works Committee that the Union Pafic Railroad has yet to sign the maintenance cost agreement with the Village. Hayek also said the railroad won't be able to start putting in the railroad until spring. Currently, the sanitary sewer work is being done. The Land Use PLan Management Team will be talking about the issue at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16 at the Caledonia Safety Building, 6900 Nicholson Road.

UPDATE Sept. 28: Mike Hayek, the Village Engineer, said the 4-Mile Road and UPRR Grade Separation Project is scheduled to begin Oct. 11. This means the road will be completely closed to traffic starting Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 until December 2012. Signs notifying traffic will be posted on the road by this Friday. Four Mile Road will be closed from the Post Office to 2825 4-Mile Road for one year.

UPDATE Sept. 21: Zenith Tech will likely start the project over the next few weeks. Mike Hayek, the Village Engineer, said they will put out flags informing commuters of the shut down two weeks prior to when the project will start.

We Energies is paying for the $8 million project, but the has already spent $1.2 million on design, engineering, and legal work and Union Pacific Railroad will be billing $1 million for doing track adjustments, which will be paid for by the We Energies money. The remaining dollars will pay Zenith. The Village will also act as the site construction manager on the project.

OLDER STORY: Construction on the Four Mile underpass will likely begin in mid-September and take about 14 months to complete, said Mike Hayek, the Village Engineer.

But a hitch in the agreement between Union Pacific and the Village may add to the Village’s portion of the bill.

Mike Hayek, engineer for the Village, explained to the Public Works Committee at their meeting Wednesday, July 13 that he hopes to have the current agreement amended by the time the bids come in for the project to reflect the 2011 project estimate. The current agreement includes the 2010 estimate. The difference between the two means the Village could be on the hook for more money.

Still, Board members Ron Coutts and Jerry Griswold said if they don’t move quickly, the project could cost a lot more if they have to push construction into 2012.

“We need to get that bridge done,” Coutts said. “Even if it means the Village has to eat $30,000, it will still be a lot less money than if we pushed this off until next year. And, we’ve already waited too long.”

The purpose of the project is to ease traffic congestion along the railroad tracks on Four Mile Road just west of Douglas Avenue by having a bridge built over the road for the trains. The underpass project was initiated two years ago because of a $2 billion We Energies expansion, which was just completed in January.

“Now that the expansion is done we now have trains as long as 180 cars long,” Coutts said.

Last month Elaine Ekes, the Village Attorney, told the Board that Union Pacific agreed to pay 5 percent of a portion of the 2010 project estimate, but the 2011 project estimate came in at a higher amount. If the agreement isn’t amended to include the new numbers, taxpayers could be on the hook for $30,000 more. Officials with Union Pacific told the Village they would need to have the 2011 project estimate approved and that could hold up the project another six to eight weeks.

Tom Lebak, administrator for the Village, said the bid also needs to come in under the amount of money the village is getting from We Energies, which is $600,000 over 20 years. The money will fund the construction of the overpass. However, Village administrators and Board members are concerned the longer the project gets held up, the higher the cost could be and they would then need to put that extra cost onto the tax roll.