Central Avenue Construction Update

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Work on North Central Avenue between Osborne and Hillsborough avenues continues with the goal to be complete by the end of May 2023. While crews did lose a few days to Hurricane Ian, all pipe work is scheduled to be completed around mid-October. Work is expected to progress as follows:

  • Central Ave. east side between Hillsborough and Caracas: Curb should be complete by the end of October; first layer of asphalt will be installed by Thanksgiving. Shortly thereafter, the southbound traffic lane will shift to the east between Hillsborough and Caracas.
  • Central Ave. west side between Hillsborough and Caracas: Roadwork will begin in early 2023; first layer of asphalt is scheduled to be installed by the end of March.
  • Paving Hillsborough to Osborne: After the west side work is complete, crews will mill (remove the top layer of asphalt) and repave on all portions of Central between Hillsborough and Osborne that have not been rebuilt. During milling and paving, the southbound traffic lane will shift sides to accommodate paving. Traffic will remain southbound only. Please use caution while driving and obey all lane adjustments and traffic signs.
  • Once Central Avenue is completely paved, crews will stripe it and install all new signs, which will take approximately two weeks.
  • On-street parking: Permeable brick pavers will be installed in the new parallel parking spaces from Frierson to Wilder avenues. These pavers allow water to flow in between the blocks and back into the ground and are part of the green infrastructure being installed on this project. Because of pandemic-related supply chain issues, we currently do not have a timeframe for delivery of these pavers. Installation will take one month once they arrive, which will require traffic to be diverted back and forth between the north- and southbound lanes.
  • New crosswalk: A rectangular rapid flashing beacon crosswalk will be installed across Central at Wilder Avenue. We do not have a delivery timeframe on the beacons, as they are currently backordered.

We still have some significant details to figure out and will keep the community informed as construction progresses and as we determine how to work the permeable pavers into our construction schedule.