June 2011 Newsletter
BIRMINGHAM RECEIVES APWA AND MCA AWARDS FOR SHAIN PARK PAVING PROJECT
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Appearing left to right: Brendan Cousino and Paul O’Meara, City of |
Nowak & Fraus Engineers (NFE) is pleased to announce that its client, the City of Birmingham, has won three (3) awards for its Shain Park paving project. Initially the project won the American Public Words Association (APWA) 2010 Detroit Metro Branch award in the "Historical Preservation" category, less than $5 million division. This award was followed up with a second award when the project won the 2011 Michigan Concrete Association (MCA) "Award of Excellence" in the "Residential Streets" category. The project was further honored with its third award when it won the 2011 APWA Michigan Chapter award in the "Transportation" category less than $5 million division. NFE had the honor of assisting the City with the project as its lead engineering consultant responsible for all project surveying and preparation of the construction plans and specifications for the road design and paving improvements.
This 2010 project was undertaken by the City of Birmingham to enhance and upgrade the streets and underground utilities surrounding City Hall and the adjacent Shain Park area. The park, bounded by Martin, Henrietta, Merrill and Bates Streets, had been expanded in 2008 by extending it southerly to occupy the northerly portion of an adjacent City owned parking lot and closing Merrill Street through the park, which resulted in a loss of parking. To recoup some of the lost parking resulting from the park expansion, the 2010 plans called for the widening of a three (3) block section of Martin Street, between Pierce and Chester Streets, to enable the replacement of existing parallel parking spaces along Martin Street with 45-degree angled parking spaces. Also the one (1) block section of Martin Street between Pierce and Henrietta Streets was changed from one-way traffic to two-way traffic, and additional parallel parking spaces were added along sections of Bates, Henrietta, and Townsend Streets where none had previously existed.
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| Bates Street new concrete looking southeast. Shain Park in the background. |
Martin Street during paving operations, looking southeast at City Hall. |
Another significant component of this project included the preservation of the historical entrance to City Hall. It was necessary to enhance and refurbish the existing entrance plaza and front yard landscaping along the north face of City Hall fronting Martin Street by replacing the outdated brick and concrete plaza with a new and more inviting granite plaza entrance, coupled with a tiered granite seat wall and steps. New landscaping and trees were also included to match with and complement the previously completed Shain Park expansion and redesign. Nowak & Fraus Engineers assisted the project architect with the site grading design to facilitate the entrance plaza refurbishing.
As a final component to this challenging project, and to complement the improvements at City Hall, portions of existing sidewalk abutting the street reconstruction work were replaced and reconstructed utilizing the City's "streetscape" design. The interspersing of sawcut sidewalk with exposed aggregate sidewalk, together with new street lighting and street trees significantly enhanced the streetscape adjacent to City Hall
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| Completed Martin Street and City Hall frontage. | Completed streetscape and parking along Martin Street, looking west. |
Through the use of sound construction management techniques on the part of the City of Birmingham, its engineering consultants and the contractor, the project was completed in a safe manner and within the project budget and ahead of schedule. Throughout construction a cooperative and collaborative effort of teamwork prevailed between all parties that minimized the inconvenience and disruption to the public, and made the project a success.
For more information regarding this project, please contact Glen Yrjanainen at gyrjanainen@nowakfraus.com or Brett Buchholz at bbuchholz@nowakfraus.com.