Our team has had a front row seat to the complete transformation of Napoleon Street in downtown Valparaiso over the past few months, and have enjoyed getting to know many of the guys working on every aspect of the job and the hard work they put into recreating this great little street with the character of historical Valpo.
From well below ground tearing out the old street, installing new sewers, water main, widening the road, and changing what had become an off road experience, Eric and Jeff Rex from Rex Construction have appreciated the significance of the project.
"Historical bricks add character and history to the street and the work we are doing," noted Eric. "Bringing the street back to look a bit like it did 100 years ago is satisfying."
Eddie Viayra, Foreman of LPS Pavement whose team has laid the 42,000 bricks that make up the new street has been doing this kind of work for 20+ years and the principles that he teaches his crew are as firm as the roadway he is helping to build.
"It's all about the grade, and attention to details is how meeting points happen,” he said. “We set out a start point and an end point, and then do a lot of really hard work to make sure everything follows the grade. We lay them out right and with the strength of these bricks this road is stronger than concrete."
Pictured here is LPS Pavement Crew: Eddie Viayra, Manuel Maganza, Rico Perez, Alex Cano, and Joe Onofrey
Nate McGinley, Project Manager from the Engineering Department at the City of Valparaiso has been the most consistent presence on the job from beginning to end, rain, shine, wind, or cold to make sure that everything kept moving.
"We are so thankful for the hard work of everyone involved - Public Works, Utilities, and Engineering at the City and all the folks from Rex Construction and LPS Pavement that have helped us get this done in timely fashion before the holidays," McGinley said. “We did survey, design work, and putting the project out to bid all in house at the engineering department with help from utilities to save money and be able to do some more of the decorative elements to recreating this street. Everyone was working on a common goal and it has turned out really well. About half of the historical brick is from stockpiles that the City of Valparaiso had, and another half from Lake County. We are proud to have this all be NWI regional brick."
“We pulled up all the old brick and are holding onto it for potential use in the future, though it is thinner than the bricks they are putting down and pretty beat up after 100 years. This brick keeps all that history and is much sturdier to handle heavy loads and the tough challenges of plowing during the winter,” McGinley added.
The street is expected to open the week of November 23rd. On behalf of the Ideas in Motion Media crew that has watched every aspect of your digging, laying pipe, pouring, and brick laying one by one, thank all of you for what you have done to recreate Napoleon Street, or as we call it, Good News Drive.
