Residents of Nederland should expect to see an improved Boston Avenue by early spring of next year.

The City of Nederland has awarded the bid for the Boston Avenue Repairs/Improvements Project to Brystar Contracting.

“It’s a good contractor. We feel very comfortable with them,” Chris Duque, city manager for Nederland, said. “We’ve done good work with them before.”

The bid amount, which was the lowest of four competing bids, was $129,025.

“Brystar has done work with the city before, so we’re comfortable with awarding the bid to them,” Duque said.

As the name implies, the project will repair and improve parts of the historic Nederland street.

“The scope of the project is a lot,” Duque said. “We’re going to replace the segment of sidewalk along Boston Avenue between 17^th Street and the museums.”

The impetus for the project started after last spring’s Heritage Festival when some complaints were brought to the City’s attention and the staff took notice.

“There’s very significant breaks in the sidewalk, so we’re going to go back and basically repair some major parts of the sidewalk,” Duque said.

In addition, the project will seek to install more handicap-accessible ramps along Boston.

“The museum employees brought up the concern about the lack of ADA ramps right in front of the museums,” Duque said.

“They were correct. The only two ADA ramps are at either end of the streets — so you would either have to go down 17^th or 15^th.”

Duque said, “It’s a problem for anyone who’s in a wheelchair or who just otherwise has trouble with that curb.”

Duque said they would put some handicap parking in front of the museums as well.

Attention was also drawn by a Boston Avenue business about possible tripping hazards associated with the brick pavers outside their store.

“So, we had our street supervisor go down and look at that one,” Duque said. “And he took it upon himself to walk the entire street on both sides to see if there were any more problem spots …

“We identified quite a number of areas where the bricks are sinking that creates a tripping hazard.”

Duque said the contractors would fix the base underneath the bricks and reset them to eliminate the tripping hazard.

“We also talked about the decorative street poles; the ones that have three light fixtures on them,” Duque said.

“I guess the nice way of saying it is if we would have been in charge of the light installation, we would have done it a bit differently.”

The poles will be reset for better stability.

“We’re going to go ahead and have the poles essentially reset,” Duque said. “On some of the areas, they’re having some issues as well because of the base that’s under there; so, we’re going to go ahead and reset that with stabilized material.”

The poles will also be repainted.

“Looking at the poles, they’ve been out in the SeTX weather and they’ve had some issues where they just need to be re-painted,” Duque said.

Nederland’s public works employees conferred with Sherwin-Williams experts to find an appropriate product for the poles.

“It’s an aluminum pole; it’s powder-coated black right now. They found a material that would allow them to prime it and to repaint it,” Duque said.

“As they’re resetting the poles, they’ll be repainting them and then they’ll be put back. So, as far as the poles, nothing’s going to be taken away; they’ll just be redone.”

Officials have already tested the new paint on one of the poles, and Duque said the new coat is glossy compared with the previous one’s matted black.

“We looked at the finished product and said, ‘We like this; it looks good.’”

The Boston Avenue Project is not planned to be very invasive for the businesses along the street, according to Duque.

“And most of the work, it’s not going to be a very invasive project in terms of interrupting the flow of traffic or even pedestrian traffic,” Duque said.

“And really, we feel very comfortable that the work area is not going to be that large. It’s not going to be something where there’ll ever be any reason where somebody will have to close their door or that any utilities will be interrupted. Nothing like that.”

Duque said the contractor work would not be a big distraction or nuisance to businesses.

“So, business will be able to continue for those people, and people will be able to shop on Boston,” Duque said.

According to Duque, the City would notify affected businesses on Boston.

“We will be sending something to the businesses so they’ll know what we’re doing,” Duque said. “And they’ll have some contact phone numbers in case there is a problem or they have any questions while we’re going through the project.

“We want to make sure they’re informed.”

The project will also service transitional ramps near Central Middle School on 17^th Street and Boston Avenue.

Duque explained that the state had poured concrete on top of what was already there order to transition to the new ramp, and it had become a problem.

“It’s concrete sitting on top of concrete,” Duque said. “What they did on that transitional ramp is breaking. It’s badly breaking and falling apart.”

Duque said the transitional ramps affected would be fixed in the project.

“Where those transitional (ramps) are failing, we’re going to go back and make them more permanent,” Duque said.

Regarding the timeline, contract work is scheduled to start in January and end in March.

“The contractors are not going to start until after the New Year. Their bid specifications require them to be done with the work between 12^th Street and 17^th Street by the first week of March,” Duque said.

“So, we’re being sensitive to the Heritage Festival schedule with that requirement.”

The Boston Avenue Project is geared toward bettering infrastructure and aesthetic.

“It’s a maintenance project but it’s also an improvement project,” Duque said.

“I think we all know that Boston Avenue is very important to the City’s identity. It’s an important shopping area for this community; and those museums are also very important to the City’s identity.

“And this area is used for a lot of community events; so, it’s important for us to get this repaired and looking better.”

The funds for the project would come from surplus funds from last year’s budget, according to Duque.

“We see this project as being a benefit to the Boston shopping district, to the museums, to the schools — because you do have kids who walk on those sidewalks — to the Festival because this will improve some of the main area that the Festival uses,” Duque said.

“This is going to be a good project for a lot of Nederland.”