Florent Avenue Needs Work: MSD and Maplewood Hopefully Can Work Together

Florent Avenue, in Maplewood, is in need of two infrastructure repairs, and they’re related.

The road is patched, cracked and stressed with sinkholes. Director of Public Works Anthony Traxler said three sewer laterals have collapsed recently. Two were repaired last week and the third, this week.

Traxler contacted Metropolitan Sewer District repeatedly over the past four years, and MSD finally responded that the main sewer line is compromised and needs to be replaced or relined.

The problem is that MSD said it would be 10 years before they could do the work. Traxler said Maplewood plans on improving Florent in the next one to three years.

He said it doesn’t make sense to fix a street, and have MSD come in after that and tear it up to reline or replace the main.

“There’s nothing more frustrating than putting a new road in and having the utility company come in and tear that road out later,” he said. “It’s a waste of money, and it’s a waste of time for everybody. The residents are inconvenienced twice as opposed to once. That’s what we’re trying to avoid.”

There’s a bit of a dance because if MSD tears up a road to do its work, it could have to pay for a new one.

“I can tell you I don’t want to pay for a street and they don’t want to pay for a street,” Traxler said. “It needs to be done, and we’ve got to coordinate. Right now, there’s a possibility we could work something out together.”

He said the bottom line is he doesn't want to redo the road until the sewer is fixed.

"MSD is backed up, so I’m going to talk with them and hopefully they will push this road to the forefront so they can complete their work, making the necessary repairs, and then I can go in there and finish up whatever is not repaired – road-wise."