First off, after having lived on Virginia Place for a year and a half (back in 2006-2007), I was sooooo happy to hear of the much needed reconstruction. But this....this is horrible!!! And to not even finish?!?! Makes me wonder what we will have to deal with traversing Frank Hall where they JUST took out some layers. Ulland Bros needs to get their act together...tho I doubt it will happen any time soon.
PS. Don't get me started on Jahnke. We have some signs that we were told that could be removed.. In 2007. Apparently the decision to remove them was/is left up to him. Even tho the person who wanted them up doesn't even live on our street. And is a pest to everyone on our street...and even the local LEOs. Tho...neighborhood kids DID help with the removal of one of the signs...so technically one can go back to parking anywhere they want...😂😂😂😂
-------------- I once had a thought...then it ran off before I could remember what it was...
The way I see it, the City (specifically the Engineering Department) has failed the residents along this project, at least the ones down in the area of alcitizens. And sadly, the City Council and Mayor do not care and for some reason will not question the City Engineer.
Some of the facts as I understand them - Flooding has been an issue for at least 40 years for this area - City has had this project on their CIP list for roughly 15 years - City has struggled getting this done due to the high costs caused by > poor soils (peat) under the roadway affecting not just the road but also the utilities (water, sanitary and storm) > existing storm system, including lift station and outlet piping are vastly under sized to handle the storm water that gets to this area. over the years other changes have been made to increase the contributing area of storm water to this system sans improvements to the lift station and outlet piping - Alcitizens has tried on MANY occasions to bring up the concern of the storm system and the flooding to the City Engineer, City Council, Mayor, and County Commissioners. None seem to care, understand, or want to do their jobs when it comes to this project and the legitimate concerns and ENGINEERING DESIGN FAILURES that are occurring on this project. - Construction was originally to be completed last fall, nearly a year later and construction still is not done - A construction failure has been identified, the new storm sewer has a sag, a manhole has standing water in it. This was pointed out to the Engineering Department and has not been corrected. Since then the curb and gutter has been installed as well as the first layer of bituminous. So, not only did the Engineering Department not design this project in a way that corrected the known flooding issues, it has allowed a failure to already occur in the storm system and is not going to correct it. So the new storm sewer that has been installed, is not functioning as designed, has reduced the capacity for transporting the storm water and will lead to more flooding issues.
Yes, sometimes Alcitizens maybe does not use the best approach, but I think anyone who has lived through this as he has, has brought up the issues and concerns as many times as he has with no results, is allowed to be frustrated and not be friendly anymore when dealing with the City Officials and Employees who do not care that they have totally messed up this project.
Alcitizens- keep up the fight, keep after the City Engineer, Mayor and Council. REFUSE to pay our assessment until they fix the failed new storm piping and manhole and until they schedule upgrades to the lift station and outlet pipe to eliminate the flooding.
was1 and others, I can only hope that the reason for the delay of the final layer of asphalt is because of the new sanitary sewer scheduled to be replaced from Broadway to the St. John/6th St. sanitary sewer lift station which involves Virginia Pl. in 2017.. Also corrections to the failed installation of the new 36-inch pipe at the new storm sewer catch basin that has standing water, the one without a manhole access to allow for an inspection..
My biggest dream for 2017 is the installation of a storm sewer system upgrade called the 6th St Plan that will cost $2 million, not $20 million and will come from the Albert Lea Water and Sewer Fund which would reduce flooding for many residents in many neighborhoods from 3 to 5 times every single year to a possibility of once every 10 years..
ControlledHyperness - what does Ulland have to do with the issues on Virginia? They only build what the Engineer tells them to. And then they do what they can to have an advantage to make a few extra bucks during the project, but only what the Engineer allows them to.
Did the council pass an order to remove the signs? If so call your councilor and tell him they are still up. If not, request it through your councilor again.
ALCITIZENS - I bet if you look in the project specs it calls for the final lift of bituminous to be placed the year after the first course. If they were going to do anything to correct the failed new storm system they would have done it as soon as it was discovered so they did not have to dig up the new road. Doing the repair work later will only compromise the new road surface and make it fail sooner.
15 years in the making (actual time on the CIP) and it sounds like the City gets a D- on the project.
ControlledHyperness - what does Ulland have to do with the issues on Virginia? They only build what the Engineer tells them to. And then they do what they can to have an advantage to make a few extra bucks during the project, but only what the Engineer allows them to.
Did the council pass an order to remove the signs? If so call your councilor and tell him they are still up. If not, request it through your councilor again.
ALCITIZENS - I bet if you look in the project specs it calls for the final lift of bituminous to be placed the year after the first course. If they were going to do anything to correct the failed new storm system they would have done it as soon as it was discovered so they did not have to dig up the new road. Doing the repair work later will only compromise the new road surface and make it fail sooner.
15 years in the making (actual time on the CIP) and it sounds like the City gets a D- on the project.
Obviously the City Engineers are not confident that the high cost of this project will be a success after the reconstruction of 2015 and 2016.. They need to finish it in 2017..
I told the Albert Lea City Council and Freeborn County Commissioners in 2015 that I don't feel my property will benefit after the reconstruction if flooding is allowed to continue.. I have also said that my only benefit would be not dealing with potholes anymore..
A simple replacement of a few sections of curb, gutter, sidewalk and the replacement of the road surface on Virginia Place would have saved those residents and the City close to $1 million..
Flooding will continue into the future..
This is my exact statement before the Freeborn County Board of Appeal and Equalization on Monday, June 15, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. in the County Boardroom.
I again want to say that my property value will not benefit from the improvements on Virginia Place by 20%. My house was listed at $45,000 in 2014, I paid $38,900.
If I decided to sell my house, I would be lucky if I could get what the estimated property value is currently, $67,000.
I will have to disclose what the City of Albert Lea said on May 26th. (Flooding will continue until upgrades to the storm sewer and lift station are made.)
At this time I have not heard of any attempt by the City to correct a four decade old flooding problem created by the City of Albert Lea and the Minnesota DOT.
I would hope that the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners will be able to influence the City of Albert Lea to correct this problem.
This problem is not caused by a lake or a river.
Thanks for listening. Do you have any questions?
This is my statement before the Albert Lea City Council on May 26, 2015 at the 38 minute mark..
Council gives nod to street project Published 9:44am Thursday, May 28, 2015
Residents still concerned about price, flooding
The Albert Lea City Council on Tuesday voted to move forward with the reconstruction of a portion of Virginia Place and Fifth Street.
The reconstruction includes 1,400 feet on Virginia Place from Fourth Street to Seventh Street and 1,200 feet on Fifth Street from South Broadway to St John Avenue, along with sidewalk and utilities replacement.
Albert Lea City Engineer Steven Jahnke said the streets are in poor condition and have been on the city’s project list since 2003. He said they have been a challenging project because of high cost.
Cost is estimated at $2.1 million, with 20 percent expected to come from assessments. The remainder is city cost and will be paid for through the sewer or water funds or from local bonding.
Jahnke said the average assessment is $7,275, while the highest is $14,820 per parcel.
During the Tuesday meeting, several people questioned the size of the assessments and whether the project would resolve other flooding issues in the area.
One property owner, Jay Johnson, said he is in favor of the project, but he questioned his assessment because he didn’t think his property value would gain much.
Another proper owner, Troy Christensen, said other than not having to deal with potholes, he does not see what benefit there would be. He said as long as there is periodic flooding in the area, that will lead to continued deterioration of the road.
Jahnke said the project does not resolve the flooding concerns in the area, but that flooding would likely still happen in the event of heavy rains. To solve the problem, the capacity at the lift station in that area would have to be doubled or tripled in size and the storm sewer line on every street from Virginia Place to Albert Lea Lake would have to be reconstructed.
Third Ward Councilor George Marin said he would like to see those issues tackled first and said he does not think it is right to push the costs on residents when the flooding is not fixed.
“Are we putting a lot of money into a project that we’re going to have to rip apart again?” he said. “That’s not a very good thing to do.”
At the same time, he said no one deserves to drive on roads that are in such poor condition.
The vote passed 6-0. Fourth Ward Councilor Reid Olson was absent.
I hope you are able to really stress that at the final assessment hearing and get the assessment lowered since the actual benefit is not near what they said it would be. Put lip stick on a pig and it is still a pig.
My entire basement had 8-12 inches of raw sewage in it from a plugged sanitary sewer manhole in front of 1201 Virginia Pl. I contacted the city at 10:30 to let them know that the manhole I told them was full of solids and needed to be pumped weeks ago is now plugged and flowing out of the manhole cover into the street and also flowing into my basement from my floor drain..
What a bunch of stupid motherfokks running the City of Albert Lea..
That is totally unacceptable. And, since you previously notified them of the issue, there is no way they can hide behind "Act of God" to get out of compensating you for this.
Further shows how wrong the Engineer was on this project and how wrong the City leadership has been in this project, and their support for the engineer. He needs to go back to environmental permit work for pipelines, as he has shown again and again he is not cut out for municipal work.
Hope you get things cleaned up and the City steps up and 1) takes responsibility and compensates you, and 2) fixes the damn problem correctly, even though it will require digging up the new infrastructure.
Remember boys and girls,