Long-delayed major road repaving plans in Niagara Falls are expected to resume as soon as next week.
Most of the city’s summer repaving plans were placed on hold at the end of July as some members of the Niagara Falls City Council refused to authorize a contract with West Seneca paving firm Occhino Corp. The contract, valued at $3.9 million, would be reimbursed to the city under the New York State CHIPS program.
A State of Emergency, declared by Mayor Robert Restaino on Aug. 14, allowed the mayor to execute the contract and hire Occhino.
Restaino said Tuesday that the contractor is expecting to have new catch basins and covers delivered by the end of the week and once those basins are installed asphalt repaving work can begin sometime in October.
“We’re waiting on the catch basins and hope to begin next week,” Restaino said.
The city had originally planned to repave 15 to 20 roads this summer, but Restaino said the dispute with the council had reduced those plans.
“We’ll likely be able to do about a dozen streets,” the mayor has said.
The original repaving plans had called for long stretches of Niagara Street and 11th Street to be repaved by Occhino. Those plans have now again been modified to avoid disruptions around two city schools.
Restaino said in order to avoid work that would impact parents and students coming and going to the Bloneva Bond and Harry F. Abate elementary schools, repaving will now be shifted to stretches of Packard Road and 18th Street. He said that decision was made in consultation with Falls Schools Superintendent Stan Wojton.
“We want to pay attention to construction around the schools,” Wojton said. “We want to look at the potential impact and there was a heads-up so we could plan for our busing. I appreciate the mayor’s proactive communication with us.”
Restaino said plans now call for the repaving of Niagara Street and 11th Street to take place next summer, during the schools’ summer recess. Occhino would handle that project under the terms of its current contract.
The mayor said he will also renew a request for the council to approve a contract for engineering, bidding and construction oversight services to support the city’s State Touring Route alley repaving project.
“We’re excited for a generational project to fix our alleyways,” Restaino said. “We haven’t attacked the state of our alleys in any meaningful way in anyone’s memory.”
City lawmakers postponed action on the contract at their Sept. 23 meeting over complaints from a city union leader that Department of Public Works employees should conduct the assessment and related work.
Restaino said he has communicated with council members about their concerns. He said he’s hopeful the council will approve the contract at its Oct. 7 meeting.