Test pouring shows little coloration as added expenses also factored in

BY KEVIN BONESKE

REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER

Plans to have decorative concrete at the intersection of Brown and Davenport Street in downtown Rhinelander could be going by the wayside as the road work for the Streetscape project wraps up this fall.

City public works director Tim Kingman reported at Tuesday’s Water/Wastewater Committee meeting that the test pouring of concrete samples that have been located near the intersection of Rives and Brown Street in recent weeks didn’t produce the green color of concrete as originally expected.

“The sample done recently was much milder looking, or less tone to it, than what was envisioned,” said Kingman, who also noted that type of concrete would cost the city around $2,000 to $3,000 to maintain that intersection each year.

“When you mix colors with concrete, it tends to look like concrete afterwards,” he said.

To darken the green color for the concrete, Kingman said that would involve “significantly more cost,” around double the installation cost of the type of concrete originally planned for, along with having to replace it every 10 years.

“Then we’re looking at $3,000 to $5,000 a year to maintain that,” he said.

A design for the Brown and Davenport intersection was the focus this summer in an online poll, which showed four options as to how the intersection could look like. Council members in July voted 6-2 in favor of the most popular option, which called for decorative paving for the crosswalks and bump-outs, though no specific costs were included in the poll.

In contrast to an estimated construction cost of $10,124 for the “base bid,” the various figures Kingman presented Tuesday to the committee for using concrete to pave the intersection ranged as high as $50,600 for an “alternate colored and stamped” surface and $96,140 for the “dark colored and stamped” surface.

Kingman informed committee members that an alternative using a paint product for the intersection to make it look similar “would knock these prices in a third.”

“It’s not permanent – you can take it off,” he said. “It’s not colored concrete – colored concrete was desirable because it is more resilient over time and you don’t have to paint it every year. We found out later that we do have to sort of recondition it every year.”

Kingman said the painting option would involve a blacktop surface with the path of the crosswalks painted green and having white stripes on the edges.

“We would have an obligation, pretty much on an ongoing basis, to paint it every year,” he said.

Committee member Sherrie Belliveau said she was concerned about the safety of the Brown and Davenport intersection and would favor having a similar design as stamped concrete by using paint.

Committee member Mark Pelletier said he supported using paint for the intersection as a cost-savings measure.

“When you’re comparing it to the fact that we’ve already added a block (on Stevens Street) to the (Streetscape) project… hopefully anything under budget we get we can absorb part of that block,” Pelletier said.

Committee members backed the painting option on a voice vote.

Kingman said paving for the Brown and Davenport intersection could begin in about two weeks. He noted the target date to wrap up paving this year for the entire Streetscape project is in the middle of October.