The city of LaFayette is purchasing a mini-excavator for its water, sewer and gas departments.
The primary purpose is to do Chattanooga Street paving.
"We've been looking at the plan to pave it for over a year," said City Manager David Hamilton. "We are coming up with an engineering design for Chattanooga Street prior to paving it."
The city began the "in-house" work on Dec. 16, 2015, he said. Since that time, "some of the side roads leading to Chattanooga Street have been periodically closed," Hamilton said, "and we have been forced to close both lanes on Chattanooga Street in between blocks in order to replace a drainage tile that was almost entirely collapsed.
"We are attempting to leave the roads open as much as possible, and close only one lane when necessary throughout the project to continue to allow traffic and minimize the impact on business."
City utility workers are doing the work themselves. Hamilton noted that the city has gotten better cost estimates as the project has progressed. The water line under Chattanooga Street will cost $1.2 million.
"We believe we can do the work ourselves for $250,000," he said. "We are purchasing the mini-excavator so the water department has it for the work and we believe it will save $950,000 on the project."
The excavator cost $53,010, he said.
According to Hamilton, the city is taking a hard look at the gas line, water line and storm drains.
"We want to fix it so we have a good solid road bed and we don't have to repair utility lines," said Hamilton. "Getting the engineering done and understanding the complexity and figuring out how to pave it - it's a huge step in that direction to getting Chattanooga Street repaved. We are improving utilities and the water infrastructure and everyone likes to drive on a newly paved road."
The paving project will begin on the north end where Chattanooga Street Tavern was located.
"Depending on weather, we expect the water line replacement from Henderson down to West Main to be complete by late February, and the water line from Henderson North to Probasco to be complete by early March," Henderson said.