Fifth Avenue will be resurfaced between William and Jefferson in conjunction with City Place

An exact timeline isn't yet available, but it looks like it will be sometime after Art Fair at the end of July, said Homayoon Pirooz, head of the city's project management unit. He said there's a slim chance it could be done in the first half of July, too.

David Moore, project manager for the Wolverine Building Group, which is overseeing the City Place project, said the street resurfacing project should take about two to three weeks.

In addition to simply resurfacing the street, underground utility work is involved.

The Ann Arbor City Council voted 10-0 Monday night to approve the installation of 147 feet of new water main along Fifth Avenue near the City Place project.

The city is paying a company called Douglas N. Higgins Inc. about $67,200 to install a 12-inch-diameter main. The site plan approved for City Place, still in the process of being built, included the upsizing of an existing 4-inch main fronting the site to a 12-inch main.

As a result, the developer was required to install about 515 linear feet of 12-inch main along Fifth Avenue from William Street to a point 111 feet north of Jefferson Street.

The developer is responsible for resurfacing the full width of Fifth Avenue for the limits of the water main construction.

Upon completion of that work, 147 linear feet of undersized water main in Fifth Avenue still remains to be upsized to 12-inch diameter to tie into the existing water main on Jefferson Street, according to Matt Warba, the city's acting field operations manager.

Warba said it's best for the city to extend the 12-inch main to Jefferson at this time, which would include upgrading a fire hydrant lead.

By having the work performed in coordination with the completion of the developer's work on Fifth Avenue, he said, it will eliminate future water service disruption to residents, upgrade fire protection in the area, and allow for complete resurfacing of the block.

Warba said the contractor for the City Place development, Douglas N. Higgins Inc., provided the city with a competitive price to complete the work, which also includes the replacement of the sidewalk ramp at the northeast corner of Jefferson and Fifth Avenue.

The City Place project includes two apartment buildings and a surface parking lot that take up most of the eastern side of Fifth Avenue from William Street south to Jefferson. Seven houses were torn down for the project, which remains a sore point for nearby residents.

Ann Arbor's Downtown Design Guidelines, adopted in February 2011, highlight the importance of Fifth Avenue, calling it Ann Arbor's "civic corridor," anchored to the south by the Ann Arbor District Library, the Blake Transit Center and Federal Building, and to the north by the Ann Arbor Municipal Center, Ann Arbor Fire Department and Hands-On Museum.