Upcoming 2023 street projects in Eau Claire, construction to impact traffic and businesses

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EAU CLAIRE (WQOW) – It may still be slushy and snowy out, but construction season is coming in the city of Eau Claire, and that means street projects and detours.

Here are highlights of a few big ones that will likely impact you this year.

21 street projects and five alley projects are planned for the city of Eau Claire in 2023.

“All totaled we’ll spend close to $10 million on the street portion of those projects. Utilities will add a little extra to those, about $6 million worth of utilities,” said Eau Claire city engineer Dave Solberg.

Solberg said the project with the greatest impact will be Menomonie Street from Carson Park Drive to Tenth Avenue.

That area is already a heavily traveled route.  In anticipation of the future County Materials Complex, formerly known as the Sonnentag Complex, crews plan to widen the street and potentially build a pedestrian underpass.

“Another major project that we have this summer is the North Hastings Way frontage road,” Solberg mentioned. “That starts at Pine Lodge Road and extends up to the shopping center with Menards and Target. That will be reconstructed and turned into an urban cross section with a trail. There would definitely be business impacts for that.”

Another big project is Fairfax Street from Hastings Way to Spooner Avenue.

Solberg said these road projects are important because we need to maintain and improve our infrastructure for financial and safety reasons.

“If we fall behind on doing our routine maintenance, then the cost to keep our infrastructure at the level that we need begins to grow exponentially, much faster than just doing routine maintenance. So these projects address the paving condition and the driving surface. They address utility condition. Some of the projects have utilities in excess of 100 years old,” said Solberg.

The city also plans to expand Oxford Avenue from Platt Street to Maple Street to set the Cannery District and its park up for success.

This includes streetscaping, better pedestrian accommodations for safety, and adding on-street angle parking.

At this time, there are no exact dates for this year’s road projects.

If you’d like to stay up to date on detour routes, go to the city’s interactive road construction detour map.

Click/tap here for a list of 2023 Eau Claire road and alley projects.

Click/tap here for Eau Claire road projects anticipated for the next five years.  Maps are subjects to change.

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