Kellogg Business District Makeover Flawed Engineering Firm Finds Sections Of Pavement And Subsurface Improperly Done

When the heavy equipment rumbled out of town last fall, Kellogg merchants settled back to enjoy their new streets and sidewalks.

But it appears now that the $2.24 million makeover in the uptown business district isn’t quite finished.

“The streets are going to be redone. We’re not satisfied with the pavement,” said Dale Brown, chairman of the project’s steering committee.

An engineering firm that evaluated the street work found that sections of pavement and subsurface were done improperly.

Ever since the snow melted, business owners have been pacing the streets and wondering what will happen next.

“It just isn’t very nice. The seams where the asphalt is supposed to overlap have turned into trenches. There are potholes in large sections of the street,” said Jim Wertjes, owner of Berg’s Jewelers.

Heavy truck traffic may have contributed to the problem, said Larry Comer of Welch Comer, the project engineer.

A decorative brick inlay at the intersection of Main Street and McKinley Avenue sank over the winter, subjecting drivers to a tooth-jarring bump.

That’ll be fixed this week.

“I was as much in favor of that inlay as anyone, but you can’t see it very well,” said Mike Domey, owner of Excelsior Cycle. “It seems to me the engineer should have known there were other places the money could have been spent more effectively.”

Several merchants said business owners should have been included more in the project’s planning stages.

“If they’d come to the property owners earlier, it would have eliminated some bumps,” said Wertjes.

Brown said he expects that several sections of the pavement will have to be torn up and redone and a new coat of asphalt will have to be laid on Main and McKinley.

A warranty agreement between the city and PK Contractors, a Spokane company that did the work, should cover the repairs.

“It’s not a big deal,” said Brown. “If you’re building a house and something’s not right, you just fix it before the contractor gets out.”

Comer said the work probably can be done quite quickly.

“Last year, the paving effort occurred in a two-day stretch. The repair work will probably take about a week,” he said.

Jackie Baker hopes Comer is right.

“We starved last summer,” said Baker, who works at Bitterroot Stoneware and Pottery. “If this one’s not better, some of us (businesses) aren’t going to be around.”