Article Photos

HOUGHTON - Last week folks passing through downtown Houghton got to see Shelden Avenue under a new light. Actually, passersby were under a new set of lights installed last week by Wright Electric on the 100 through 500 blocks of Shelden.

The lights are one of the last pieces to the downtown puzzle, as city officials had a hard time finding lights that matched what they had in mind.

"We had an issue with the size of the globes," City Manager Scott MacInnes said. "We had one company with globes that were a lot smaller or a lot bigger, and finally we found a company with sizes right in between, which I think worked out well."

It took the company most of the summer to get them to Houghton, putting most of the downtown in the dark when the sun would go down. Several temporary lights were put up, but because of where everything was located, they couldn't be put on every block.

MacInnes is very happy with the new product.

"They're great," he said. "We've gotten a lot of good comments on them. People like the fact that they match up to the historical lights that were here before."

While looks are one thing, MacInnes is also happy with what they will do to the budget.

"We put in the new technology with the induction lighting," MacInnes said. "Which should reduce the cost and add to the longevity of the bulbs. We should get between five and eight years out of the bulbs."

Drew Wright is one of the Wright Electric employees installing the street lights and the traffic signal on Shelden.

"Everything has been alright except that they aren't all here," Wright said. "We're still waiting for 14 of the poles to show up."

The missing poles are expected to arrive Monday, but because Arrow Construction, Inc. will likely be laying brick pavers at the time, the rest of the poles will have to wait. Once the road gets cleared, the lights should be up within a couple days.

"It takes a day to assemble them and a day to put them up," Wright said.

As for the traffic light, Wright and his crew are working on it this week with the hopes of it being functional by the end of the week.

The new crosswalk signals have a countdown on them with more clear images to help keep walkers safe.

Snow not slowing progress

The snow isn't making things any easier for Bacco Construction and Arrow Construction as they work toward the end of the project.

"The snow doesn't stop us, but it makes it cold, wet and miserable to work in," Bacco Project Superintendent Mike Momont said.

Thus far, it hasn't affected the project because they've been working mostly on sidewalks and curbs, which are nearly complete on both sides of the road.

Momont said that today crews were to begin pouring pavement. Thursday, sand-coarse will go down before brick pavers begin to be placed Friday.

"This is, of course, all weather-dependent because the bricks can't be put down unless it's dry," Momont said.

Because it's getting late in the year, Momont said they'll begin putting the pavers down as soon as possible.

"The paving trumps the sidewalks because we want to get the bricks down," Momont said. "You can still do the sidewalks (in the snow), but you can't do that to the whole road, so we're going to try to get the bricks on first."

The timeline hints to the fact that Shelden could be open to traffic by the end of next week.

Michael H. Babcock can be reached at mbabcock@mininggazette.com.