Milton’s Magnolia Street parking lot reopens
After being closed since July, Milton’s municipal parking lot on Magnolia Street has reopened to the public.
The $1.2 million project was originally supposed to end in January, but numerous construction delays pushed completion back until the beginning of March. Town Manager Kristy Rogers told town council March 6 that the project is substantially complete, with outstanding change orders still to be resolved with contractor Mumford and Miller.
Delays in the project were caused by weather and the contractor encountering contaminated soils. Mumford and Miller had to excavate the material, necessitating a dewatering permit from Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. They also needed permission to haul the spoils to Clean Earth’s Wilmington facility.
The project is aimed at curbing nuisance flooding and improving the bulkhead along the Broadkill River. The project includes a retention area, which functions like a rain garden, but it will also have a pump to circulate water away from the entrance to the parking lot. The parking lot was reoriented with one entrance and exit in the center of the lot. The wooden walkway along the river has been restored for pedestrian use.
The town debated the project for three years in response to frequent standing water in the lot. While the project will not totally prevent flooding, it will cut down on the standing water. The project was initially only about drainage issues, but it grew to include repairs to the bulkhead when engineers from Pennoni Associates found a 30-inch drain pipe had collapsed, leading to a loss of soil behind the wall. The wall around the pipe also became corroded.
The expanded scope and increased cost of supplies caused the price of the project to go up to $1.2 million. Mumford and Miller’s bid was the lowest, but the town’s original estimate from three years earlier was $814,000. The majority of the funding came from state grants, with additional money from the town’s transfer tax reserves.
