Initial plans to extend a road reconstruction project just north of the one currently being done on Nicholson Road at Dunkelow Road have been abandoned, said Tony Bunkelman, assistant village engineer for Caledonia.
The Caledonia Village Board unanimously approved the plan in August because a developer was interested in buying the adjacent property, but that is not the case now. The village board voted unanimously at its meeting Tuesday night to abandon the extension project.
“Had the developer purchased the land, one of his requests was to have the road extended and that’s why we approved the road way to the north,” Bunkelman said. “The development is not going through and we were going to go ahead with it because at no time would have been cheaper than now because we were already working on the other project.”
The village expected the project to impact about 10 parcels totaling about .225 acres to the north. But the cost of the current project is still within budget, but they had unexpected costs because of the soil condition.
“If we add in the cost of the extension along with the cost of dealing with the soil conditions, our budget won’t support $250,000 in upgrading the road,” Bunkelman said. “So we’re not doing the extension on Industrial Drive.”
But the village plans to use the excess funds they have from bonding of the project that they hadn’t used to pay to pay for the extra costs for the original project.
The current project is just wrapping up and was approved in April to improve Nicholson Road at Dunkelow Road, which is near the Caledonia Business Park. The purpose of the project is to improve the road for truck traffic into the Caledonia Business Park.