27th Street closures to continue, possibly into December

If you’ve driven on 27th Street through the Country Club lately, you’ve probably been detoured.
Lincoln Electric System has been working in the area since mid-July to bury power lines on 27th from South Street to Calvert Street, detouring 27th Street traffic from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. Construction Supervisor Dave Brozek said they’d hoped to finish work by Thanksgiving, but they’re now expecting work won’t wrap up until mid-December at the latest.
Brozek said it’s taking longer than anticipated due to the difficulty of finding accurate infrastructure records for water and sewer lines, for example, in the historic area.
It’s all part of the City Council’s edict a few years ago directing LES to spend about a million dollars per year burying power lines – to avoid downed power lines and cut down on visual clutter on streets. Other cable, gas and phone lines are also being buried in the process, Brozek said.
LES has moved power lines underground in areas such as South Street from 45th to 66th streets, and Brozek said it makes a big difference, aesthetically.
“I think it looks much nicer,” he said.
He said 27th Street is just too narrow to leave open during work.
“The one thing we can’t do is slow the cars down,” he said.
After the power lines are buried, LES will be upgrading the street lighting system from wood poles to steel poles fed by underground wires on 27th Street from South Street to Calvert Street. In addition, the Country Club Neighborhood Association plans to install decorative street lighting in the area.