ESCANABA — A slew of construction projects are planned for next summer that could make last year’s construction season seem like a walk in the park — or at least an unhindered drive down the road.

“What we did last summer in the streets, I don’t think that was a third of what’s going to happen next summer. I think that’s a fraction of what’s going to happen,” Escanaba Water and Wastewater Superintendent Jeff Lampi told the Daily Press, who expects more than $30 million-worth of construction to take place this summer.

Last year’s construction was primarily driven by the city’s ongoing lead service line and water main replacements projects tearing up roadways across the city. The two projects — dubbed “ARPA 1” and “ARPA 2” due to the projects’ funding through the American Rescue Plan Act — were awarded to two separate contractors, Oberstar, of Marquette, and Five Star Energy Services, of Big Bend, Wis.

Part of the reason that this summer will see more construction than last summer is an ambitious plan by Five Star Energy Services to complete all of the lead service lines remaining in the ARPA 2 project.

“They were doing everything on the north side of Ludington Street there. They claim that they want to do all of their lead service lines next year, which is about 600 to maybe 1,000 service lines,” said Lampi. “And it’s going to be widespread across the city. And they may or may not do any water main areas, too. If they do, it’s going to compound things dramatically.”

A third project tied to the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) taking place this summer will upgrade and repair the sewer collection system and includes work at the Ludington Street Lift Station. That project must coincide with a planned streetscaping project at the east end of Ludington Street and the development of the old jail and Chamber of Commerce properties into a hotel and a condominium complex.

The CWSRF project, streetscaping, and redevelopments must take place at the same time for a few reasons. First, the streetscaping project is a complete reengineering of the roadway in the area. It would be impractical to tear up the streets for water-related work, restore the streets to their current configuration, and then tear everything out for the re-scaping later. Similarly, major utility work for the two developments must take place before construction can begin in earnest on either project. Making any utility changes or upgrades while the road is already torn up makes sense for the city and for the developers.

“Come spring, Ludington Street will be tore up from the park, from the lift station, all the way to the courthouse. And that may or may not be put back together by July,” said Lampi.

If there are delays, it may be mid-July by the time the road is restored with new asphalt at the end of Ludington Street. How that would affect Independence Day activities is still unknown.

What is known is that Ludington Street will look very different in that area once work is completed. One of the key features of the streetscaping is the inclusion of “bump-outs,” which are areas where sidewalk juts out into the roadway. These sidewalk extensions are designed to reduce the chances of pedestrian accidents by making pedestrians more visible to motorists and by decreasing the distance a pedestrian has to travel to cross a street.

The streetscaping also includes the addition of a median with vegetation. In addition to potentially being more aesthetically pleasing than what is already in the area, combining bumpouts with the median is likely to reduce the speed of traffic — a further protection for pedestrians.

Because both the bump-outs and the median will drastically reshape the area, parking must also be redesigned. Instead of the parallel parking currently in use in the area, angled parking will be created along each block. The exact number of spaces will vary slightly, but as an example, the 400 Block of Ludington Street is expected to have 12 angled spaces on each side of the road.