Ovilla Street Repair to begin by end of month, maybe (?)

OVILLA – The Water Street Bridge Improvement Project could be underway in Ovilla by the end of August.

The city originally began working with engineers back in October 2018 to begin the much-needed improvement project.   

At a recent city council meeting, J&K Excavation LLC were awarded the bid for $314,941.

The Water Street Bridge Improvement Project is for work to be done on Water Street Bridge, a two-lane roadway bridge over Red Oak Creek. The bridge is located west of Water Street, and part of Ellis County and needs bridge and creek wall improvements for stabilization, channel grading and erosion repair and gabion retaining walls along creek banks.  

Ovilla City Manager Pam Woodall said the portion of the bridge on the Ellis County side, including engineering costs, will be in conjunction with Ellis County.

The city’s engineer’s probable construction cost, including engineering, surveying, materials testing, and contingency is expected to be around $386,735.

While the project is set to begin this month, Woodall said it is unknown how long the work will take to be complete “until we conduct a pre-construction meeting – hopefully will know in the next two weeks,” she concluded.