The Superior Express -

Work on Superior’s Bloom Street water project is finally getting underway. The original plan was to complete the work in 2020 but to schedule the work around the Highway 8 improvement project and the harvest seasons. The goal was to cause the least inconvenience to motorists travelling Highway 14. Eventually, the city and the contractor, Van Kirk Brothers, concluded it was best to delay the 2020 work until 2021.

The time is now here. The engineers and contractors were scheduled to meet with city representatives yesterday (Wednesday) and survey work was to begin on Wednesday.

Actual construction work is to begin on Monday.

Material for the project was bought last year and has been in storage since.

A new water main will extend along Bloom Street between Second and Seventh streets. Plans call for utilizing underground boring so as to cause the least disruption. The goal is to maintain to complete the work without shutting off street access or access to the business located along Bloom Street.

The completion date for this project is now set for April but that does mean that is the end of the utility upgrade work. The 2022 utility improvement plan provides for continuing on north replacing water mains after the street name changes from Bloom to Idaho.

The exact reason for the street name change has been forgotten but at Eighth Street the name of Bloom Street is changed to Idaho Street. For many years there was a slight jog at Eighth Street as the location of the two streets did not match perfectly.

That jog sometimes caused problems for drivers who were not paying attention. Their vehicles sometimes slammed into a retaining wall located on the northeast corner of the intersection.

Since the widening of Bloom Street in the late 1970s, the alignment has been less of a problem.