Polk Avenue redesigned

The redesign is part of the city's plan to improve Charleston

By: Erin Miller/ City editor

Posted: 4/21/05

The Charleston City Council hired an engineer to redesign Polk Avenue from Sixth to Division streets.

The upgrade of Polk Avenue is part of the city's comprehensive plan to improve Charleston, and it wants another east-west street other than Lincoln Avenue, Mayor Dan Cougill said.

"We want to upgrade Polk Avenue because it is bumpy," Cougill said.

The cost of an engineer is about $20,000, and the engineer will help determine if additional land needs to be purchased from homeowners to make the road wider, he said.

Polk Avenue is currently 40 feet wide from the back of the sidewalks and will be about 26 feet wide not including the sidewalks, Cougill said.

"It will improve not only vehicle traffic but pedestrian traffic," he said.

The city chose to hire Consolidated Services of Coles County, which submitted a bid to the city when the council first looked into redesigning Polk Avenue, Cougill said.

"The original design was a wider street, and that required the city to purchase more property," said Mike Sullivan, owner of the engineering company. "They hired us to revise the original design in order to make (the street) a little more narrow, so (the city) doesn't have to purchase so much right of way."

Along with determining what land needs to be purchased, an engineer determines sidewalk location, tree removal and the complete setup for project specifications, Sullivan said.

"We take (the city's) initial design, and we generate a set of engineering drawings suitable for construction, and the city then takes those drawings to contractors," he said.

Construction will ideally begin in spring 2006, after graduation and classes are done at Eastern so it does not interfere, Cougill said.