City addresses collapse on Main
BY ALYSSA MEIER
Editor
What used to be a half a block of Main Avenue is now nothing more than a massive pit in downtown Washburn.
Washburn City Commissioners gathered for an emergency meeting Monday night to address a section of Main Avenue that collapsed into the adjacent coulee last week, giving the go-ahead for engineers to work on a plan.
Eric Lothspeich of AE2S Engineering, attending Monday’s meeting via teleconference, presented commissioners with a task order for planning and overseeing the repair. Task order 14 would include surveying the area, designing a new culvert design and working with contractors to execute construction.
“We will have to size the pipe based on how much flow we expect to be coming through the coulee,” Lothspeich said.
The task order would cost a maximum of $9,500, depending on the number of work hours the project demanded. Lothspeich said the project design would be completed within 20 days, afterwhich the city could move forward with selecting a contractor and beginning construction.
