Personalized bricks cause a hiccup in sidewalk project

(Above) The City is finding that several personalized bricks salvaged from Main Avenue for re-use in the new sidewalks are decayed beyond the point of re-use.  The City has announced it will pay for new personalized bricks to replace those deemed unusable.-Reporter photo.

The goal of reintegrating personalized bricks into the new sidewalks on Main Avenue has hit a bump in the road.

In the process of laying new brick pavers in the first phase of the Main Avenue Sidewalk Reconstruction project it became apparent that the personalized bricks salvaged from the previous sidewalk would not all be useable.  In addition to their slightly different size, several had deteriorated beyond the point of re-use.

Clear Lake City Administrator Scott Flory said about one-half of the engraved bricks were structurally decayed enough they couldn’t be re-used.

“We put some back in, but many of those are so faded that they don’t look very nice,” he said.

Officials expect the bricks pulled from the 300 block of Main Avenue to be in worse shape than others because they were among the first installed around 1994.

The decision has already been made for the city to pay to replace the engraved bricks deemed unusable.

“Right now the plan is to take it one block at a time. We will know more as the project progresses,” said Flory.  “The 300 block is likely to be far worse than all the other blocks on Main Avenue, perhaps even combined. The cost will be about $20 a brick. Our objective is only to put bricks back in that are safe and look decent. I would estimate it could add 4 to 5 percent to the project cost in the end.”