By Steve Plunkett
Wait eight more months for the town’s core area to turn into a construction zone.
The latest schedule, approved by the Town Commission on Jan. 14, shows work on replacing drainage and water pipes and rebuilding roads set to begin in August 2023 and end 18 months later, in January 2025.
An earlier timeline had construction starting in January 2023 and finishing that November.
“It’s not going to be the whole area torn up all at once,” said Rebecca Travis of consulting engineer Baxter & Woodman. “You won’t have open trenches at the end of the day, you won’t have your driveway obstructed. Mail will be able to get in, deliveries and all that.”
The project, being managed by Baxter & Woodman, is divided into two phases: the first phase mostly Polo Drive and west; phase two the core streets east of Polo. Water mains, currently 3-inch to 6-inch asbestos cement pipes, will be upgraded to 6-inch PVC pipe. Similarly, a 6-inch PVC pipe will replace the 4-inch water main in the alley between Polo and Gulf Stream Road.
To alleviate flooding, an aging 24-inch drainage pipe from Polo Drive to an Intracoastal Waterway canal will be replaced with a modern 48-inch outlet, an 18-inch pipe will be added at the west end of Old School Road, and a lake at the Little Club will be expanded by .4 acre. The exact site of the lake expansion is still being decided.
Then streets will be “milled and overlaid or redesigned to a crowned road section with a more consistent slope, and where feasible, will include stormwater inlets and piping to provide a positive discharge of stormwater to an established outfall,” the contract says.
The west portion of the construction, to be done from August 2023 to May 2024, covers Polo Drive, Wright Way, Old School Road, Palm Way, and Banyan Road, Middle Road and Golfview Road west of Polo.
The east phase, set for June 2024 to January 2025, is Gulf Stream Road, Bermuda Lane, Oleander Way, Sea Road west of Bermuda, Lakeview Drive, the alley between Polo and Gulf Stream, and Banyan Road, Middle Road and Golfview Drive east of Polo.
Baxter & Woodman will also provide information for the town’s website to inform residents of progress on the job.
The work, part of Gulf Stream’s 10-year capital improvement plan, is estimated to cost at least $11 million and will go out for bids next January. Baxter & Woodman will be paid $846,440 to oversee the project. Town officials say money from ordinary property taxes and water and sewer fees will pay for the work with no need to borrow or raise taxes.
In other business, Police Chief Edward Allen introduced his newest hire, Joe Yungk, a 15-year veteran of North Palm Beach. The hire brings the town’s police force up to its full 13-officer staffing level.
“He’s well qualified and we’re glad to have him,” Allen said.
Allen also told commissioners about an unusual case involving a perhaps-naked man banging on at least one resident’s front door on Middle Road at 4:30 a.m. The resident called police, who found the man sitting naked in his car. A Golfview Drive resident later reported that his security camera showed a naked man taking a swim in his backyard pool.
“He was apparently on some kind of designer drug,” the chief said.
The man, whom Allen did not identify, told officers he liked to look at real estate investment opportunities in the early-morning hours.
He could not be arrested for trespassing, Allen said, because police encountered him on a public street.
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