THATCHER — The Town of Thatcher will redirect improvement efforts away from 8th Street to Allred Lane . . . but only for a short time.
Town Manager Heath Brown informed the Town Council on Monday he plans to complete work on Allred Lane rather than move Public Works crews to the 8th Street realignment project before going back to Allred Lane.
“We just got those new businesses on the corner that we wanted to finish that little segment before they moved it,” Brown said. “All of our equipment is there, we’ve got our right-of-way, it’s just a good time to kind of finish it up.”
Brown told the council he expects the Allred Lane Project — which will include repaving the road, curb, gutter and eventually connecting to U.S. Highway 70 — will take about three to four months to complete.
The 8th Street realignment project will straighten the road from the county line, just west of Arena Way, to Reay Lane, bringing 8th Street past Carter’s Custom Cuts, rather than curving around the new sports complex.
Brown said he expects the 8th Street realignment to take about two to three months to complete.
He added that improvements to the east side of 8th Street, between 20th and First avenues, is moving forward with an engineer currently completing design of the project.
“That’s full steam ahead,” Brown said.
The state awarded Thatcher $4.5 million to turn the east side of 8th Street into a three-lane roadway, with curbs and sidewalks. There will also be new crossings at the canal and the railroad tracks.
