Sylvan Circle gains curb appeal

The barricades will soon be removed from the Sylvan Circle and Needles Drive residential area that was upended by a major overhaul of streets and utilities this summer.

With the Sept. 15 deadline looming, city engineer Paul Sanow said general contractor, Soukup Construction, is on pace to meet the deadline.

“Property owners are starting to see the surfacing, which creates that buzz that it’s getting closer to being completed,” he said. “I call it the icing on the cake.”

With the first lift of asphalt expected this week in sequence 2, Sanow said the second lift typically comes right behind, and then work behind the curb (boulevard grading and seeding) wraps things up.

“Now is the perfect time to reseed to get that germination before it freezes,” he said.

The contractor, he added, is responsible to water the replaced landscape 45 days after the contract completion date, after which time it becomes the responsibility of the property owner.

Work began June 1 on the $999,999 project. The scope of work in the first sequence includes reconstruction of the south intersection of Needles Drive to the area south of Custer Parkway and Sylvan Circle intersection. At this time, asphalt placement is underway, Sanow said, and topsoil, mailboxes and signs have been placed, with seeding to follow.

Sequence 2 of the project encompasses the north intersection of Sylvan Circle and Needles Drive and from the Needles Drive intersection to Splitrock Boulevard. In this area, sanitary sewer was upgraded from clay sewer pipe to PVC pipe in addition to storm sewer, utilities and street surfacing improvements. 

“The utilities have been in this area since the ‘60s and ‘70s, and our standards have changed since then to this PVC pipe, so we want to upgrade to those standards,” Sanow said. PVC pipe, he added, has an estimated 70- to 80-year life span.

Sanow also reports that underground utilities and aggregate base course have been completed, and concrete flatwork is underway. New curb and gutter, with no assessment to the affected property owners, has also been installed. Sidewalks were not part of the project, he said. 

Affected property owners are not being assessed for the improvements. 

“When replacing something that’s existing, it becomes difficult for us to assess that reconstruction back to the property owners. We are all paying for these projects as taxpayers,” Sanow said.

This was the fifth year of work in this core section of Brandon over the last six years, and there is one more area in the Sylvan development yet to be addressed, Sanow said.

“We’re trying to replace all the utilities and surfacing in this area all the way to Rushmore. Our grand scope of this project is Sylvan Circle first, and then we move into the next phase, which is Yellowstone, Oakridge, Rushmore, that area.”

However, with various projects the city has in the works, Sanow said utility projects are being prioritized.

“With all of the utility projects that we’re doing with the trunk mains and the lift stations, that’s cutting into our budget of our projects that we can proceed with. So, as we’re trying to prioritize those and if that means we have to push these projects back a year, we’ll need to take a look at doing that,” he said.

Sanow defines this summer’s scope of work as “standard.”

“Dealing with affected property owners is really the biggest challenge from a public standpoint. We have more property owners on this project because it’s larger,” he said, noting the two separate sections addressed this year. “Where the storm sewer and the sanitary sewer start and stop, we were trying to identify the project limits based on the utilities and the cost, and cost is a factor, but we can’t just stop mid-block when there’s a sanitary sewer manhole 100-feet away that needs to be replaced. There’s a logical sequence to the projects and the limits.”

Sanow said it’s always important to keep the public in the know. This is achieved through pre-construction public meetings, continual updates on the city website and Facebook posts. 

“These people have been affected six years, going on seven. Even if the project’s not right in front of their house, they’re still being affected by traffic control and people parking where they normally wouldn’t park,” he said. “We always want everyone to attend these meetings because we provide a lot of beneficial information to the property owners. I think there’s been some communication things we can do better; we always focus on that, … but as far as complaints, we haven’t had anything out of the usual.”