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Royal Avenue diggings Eagle Point has dug up street six times in two years By MELISSA MARTIN EAGLE POINT - Becky Pelican thought she saw it all when one by one, sewer, cable, telephone and gas companies tore up the road to install new lines beneath Royal Avenue. But last week, heavy equipment showed up outside her office again, this time to repair a sagging road. "This is the sixth time they've torn up the street within the past two years," said Pelican, the office manager at Eagle Point Clinic. "It's getting to be a joke." The Royal Avenue diggings started when this city - now growing at a rate of about 170 new homes a year - needed larger sewer lines. With the new homes come requests for telephone, cable television, natural gas, water and other underground service connections. "This is happening all over the valley because of the growth," said Ken Martin, utility inspector for Jackson County. Bear Creek Valley Sanitary Authority installed new sewer lines about two years ago and hired W.A. Jones of Sherwood to reconstruct Royal Avenue at a cost of about $90,000. But the company reportedly used poor techniques that resulted in sinkholes and dips, according to Carl Tappert, an engineer for Bear Creek Valley Sanitary. Bear Creek is seeking compensation for the work. Meanwhile, Bear Creek hired Hughes Brothers Construction of Central Point to rebuild the busy Eagle Point thoroughfare. Crews started work in front of Butte Creek Mill last week and are heading towards Highway 62. This week, they will work in front of businesses like Valley Feed & Farm Supply, where trucks deliver hay and other supplies daily. "Customers seem to be able to get in and out pretty good," said Pat Floyd, an employee of Valley Feed & Farm Supply. "But when we have a big truck with freight come in, it makes it tough." Construction company owner John Hughes said his crews are past the busiest block. Royal and Main is the city's most congested intersection, with buses and parents trying to cross the only bridge over Little Butte Creek as they pick up and drop off children at three schools, all within three blocks of each other. His crews stopped work for a half-hour in the mornings and afternoons in response to phone calls about students having trouble walking to and from school because of the heavy equipment. "It makes us stay 20 or 30 minutes later, but the nature of the work is not a 9-to-5-job anyway," Hughes said. "Once we dig the road out, we have to backfill so we don't leave a hole and that naturally puts us later in the evening." He expects to complete the job by the end of next week. That's good news for the manager of the chiropractic clinic that's been an Eagle Point landmark for 22 years. "I'm sitting here watching them work and I'm wondering, 'What kind of damage are they doing to the roots of the Sequoia tree across the street?" Pelican said in an interview last week. Royal's re-building is near completion, but utilities will likely be back, digging up asphalt to provide new services in this growing town. Oregon law allows it, Martin said. "One month somebody wants natural gas and the next month, somebody wants cable or water," Martin said. "You can't coordinate that." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.