BATH — Rehabilitation of Green Street this year is likely to include new pavement, a rebuilt sidewalk and reconfigured utility poles.

Nearly 30 people attended a Dec. 13 meeting on the project’s preliminary plan. Public Works Director Lee Leiner said the response was generally positive.

“Clearly people have been waiting for the city to take some action on this particular street for a long time,” Leiner said. “I think everybody was pretty excited to hear that we were … making some progress on it.”

More information can be found at cityofbath.com/green-street-rehabilitation-project.

The project has a price tag of roughly $350,000, but Leiner hopes to spend less than that. Funding would come from a $2.8 million street bond voters approved in 2017, and the project could be underway this summer.

Green Street stretches about 1,300 feet between Lincoln and High streets.

Wright-Pierce Engineers is assisting the city in design improvements. The pavement, currently in poor shape, would be redone, while a sidewalk on the north side would be rebuilt to current standards. A “sidewalk remnant” on the south side could be eliminated, Leiner said.

The south side sidewalk is “in really bad shape, (and) not something that we can maintain, and haven’t maintained it, clearly,” he said. “So having one good sidewalk on one side of each street is more of a goal from a sustainable maintenance perspective.”

The city had proposed to replace the south sidewalk in front of each house with a narrow strip of grass that would become a part of the front yard. But people at the Dec. 13 meeting pushed for new sidewalks on both sides, Leiner said.

With that input, the city sent Wright-Pierce back to the drawing board to “see if we can’t meet the desires of the residents without necessarily going against the goals that we set out to meet,” he said.

“We’d just as soon keep the character of the street, and make the functionality a little bit better,” without making it difficult for the city to maintain the infrastructure on that street, Leiner said.

Parking would remain on both sides, with the road wide enough to allow two cars to safely pass each other when other cars are parked on both sides.

The water main under the street would be replaced, and the storm drain and sewer systems modified to function better and meet Maine Department of Environmental Protection stormwater separation requirements. Utility poles would also be adjusted to facilitate easier parking.

Alex Lear can be reached at 780-9085 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.

Green Street in Bath could benefit from a multi-pronged facelift in 2019.

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