Orange Street repairs continue
Karen S. Kim
DOWNTOWN -- Construction crews that have been busily tearing up the
sidewalk on the west side of Orange Street between Broadway and Lexington
Drive are expected to clear out by the end of the week, city officials
said.
Bright orange cones and signs have littered the road since last week,
diverting traffic away from the sidewalk and forcing pedestrians to walk
on the street.
But Public Works Engineer Dennis Ambayec said the temporary disruption
to business on Orange Street will be justified by the finished product.
“The type of repairs that we’re doing, we don’t plan to come back and
do repairs like this for 10 or 15 years,” he said. “The small
inconvenience for one or two months is well worth it because we’re not
just doing patch-up work there.”
The repairs on Orange Street, part of the city’s seven-street
rehabilitation project, include replacing sidewalks, curbs, gutters and
street resurfacing.
Chuck Chefalo, co-owner of Ernie’s Camera Shop at 201 N. Orange St.
said the repairs seem unnecessary. The shop settled a lawsuit in July
against the city over compensation for losses incurred during the Orange
Street Parking Garage construction in 1999.
“I thought the sidewalk was fine,” he said Wednesday. “Nobody fell
from it, there were no big chunks missing from it. There was nothing
wrong with it.”
Chefalo said the sidewalk crews have damaged the corner of his
business’ stucco wall.
Ambayec said the city would check into the damage.
“If, in fact, the contractor did do it, he would have to replace it,”
he said.
Once the crews finish the west sidewalk on Orange Street, they will
move onto the four other streets awaiting repairs -- including Lowell
Avenue, California Avenue, Allen Avenue and Victory Boulevard. Montrose
Avenue’s sidewalk has already been repaired. The crews are also working
on Louise Street this week.
Crews will return to Orange Street at the end of April to replace the
east sidewalk and again in June to resurface the street, Ambayec said.