photo by: Bremen Keasey

Construction equipment at the intersection of New York Street and 11th Street in East Lawrence. The city said the intersection should be reopened next Friday after a design issue delayed the stormwater improvement project for multiple weeks.

A road work project in East Lawrence that fully closed a key intersection since the summer should reopen Friday after a design issue delayed the project.

In August, city workers closed 11th Street to through traffic between Connecticut Street and Delaware Street and shut down 11th Street at New York Street to complete storm sewer work in the area. At the time, city staff predicted the road would reopen on Sept. 13, as the Journal-World reported.

But an issue with the initial design delayed the project for many weeks, according to an email from Melinda Harger, an assistant director with the city’s Municipal Services and Operations Department.

Harger, in an email shared with the Journal-World that was initially responding to a resident’s question about why the work at the intersection of 11th Street and New York Street had not been completed, said the delay came because staff determined the corners on the southern part of the intersection would not drain into newly constructed inlets as designed.

Harger said the design had to be revised to include additional “small inlets” on the corners, and then it took “a few weeks” for the contractor to get those.

Harger said the stamped concrete of the intersection was placed on Wednesday, and the concrete needs “seven days of cure time.” The final asphalt patch was also finished on Thursday, and the intersection should be reopened on Friday, Nov. 8, Harger said.

The improvements to the street should address the issue of water pooling at that intersection with the new inlets for stormwater.