TL;DR: Sealing of side streets in DoubleGate will be done in June. On the day that your street will be sealed, you will not be able to drive in or out of your driveway. Please read this entire message for additional information.
Neighbors,
This is lengthy, but is very important information for you to know so please be patient and give this a complete read.
Sorry for the somewhat dramatic heading, but we met with the City yesterday who informed us they are now ready to do the sealing of all of the streets in DoubleGate, other than Twingate Drive which has already been sealed. As mentioned last fall, this is the result of the Waste Management (WM) hydraulic fuel stains on our streets which WM took immediate ownership of and provided the City funds to seal the streets. The sealant adheres and dries quicker in warmer weather, so the City decided to wait until weather was sufficiently warm to help ensure they could get the most square footage done per day and create the least disruption to homeowners. It is also a time when we don't have children and parents walking to and from school buses on our streets each day as we didn't want everyone out and around the road crews each day if possible. We do appreciate that kids are out of school and we have swim team going on, so it may not be much better than during the school year, but we hope it is. I will be completely upfront that this is going to be disruptive for our neighborhood but the City is committed to and has to seal our streets and having spent time talking with the City and the Contractor, the best option we've come up with is to try to limit the amount of time that our neighbors are disrupted. It takes a day to do 16,000 square feet of road. That translates to 6-7 days of road work within our neighborhood alone and there are multiple neighborhoods getting this work done in sequence. We have a lot of mileage in our neighborhood. The plan involves specific streets being done each day over that 6-7 day period and if a street is scheduled to be done on that day, that street will be CLOSED FOR THE DAY. That street will be done that day and there will be no further work on that street impacting the homeowners. On the day that street is being worked on, you should expect that the street will be closed and no traffic will be allowed on the road from 8:00am – 6:00pm. If weather cooperates, the street may dry before 6:00pm and the road opened, but the contractor is advising that we should not plan for that contingency to happen.
On the day your street is scheduled for sealing, you should plan to either be in the house for the day, out of the house all day, or park a car on another street that is not being worked on before 8:00am that morning. You can either walk to your car during the day, or there will be a phone number for a golf cart shuttle that will pick you up at your driveway and take you to and from your house and car wherever you have parked it. That shuttle service will be available all day and is unlikely to be more than 5 minutes away from your home at any time of day. This shuttle service will be the quickest and easiest way to get to and from your car and I'd encourage you to use this especially with the warmer temperature. It is hot, even for a short walk to your car. For children, please ask them to stay off the streets. You don't want them walking in this sealant and certainly they don't want this in their bicycle tires and then on your driveway. If they need to be out on their bikes, the street gutters won't be touched, so they can walk along the yards with their bike tires in the gutter until they get out of the road work area.
Similar to this work being done last year on Twingate, I once again ask for you to be "neighborly." This is a great opportunity to show cooperation to your fellow neighbor. In some cases, the nearest location for someone to park their car will be through their backyard and their neighbors yard to get to their neighbor's street where they can park their car, or better yet, a neighbor's driveway and off the street. Cooperation and understanding to allow a neighbor to park in your cul-de-sac on a day and walk through your yard to get to their car or house would be very thoughtful and they same may be reciprocated a day or two later when the other neighbor could use the same accommodation when their street is being worked on. Patience and understanding is the request here. There is no simple answer and there aren't a lot of options. We are doing our best to try to manage this to one day and hoping the weather cooperates to help keep the schedule. Please do your best to park your cars on other side streets or accommodating neighbor's driveways when your street is being worked on. We would like to keep Twingate with as few cars as possible on it as cars parked there just added to the risk of accident especially with kids on foot or bikes on Twingate this time of year and we'd like to keep as few vehicles everyone to be maneuvering around.
The street sealing is to begin Monday June 10, weather permitting. The contractor is still finalizing the schedule of which streets on which days. You will be receiving further information via email and flyers in your mailbox from the contractor as we get closer to your street sealing day. I would also encourage you to go to HOA website, doublegate.net, regularly as we get closer to the 10th for updates on the schedule. This is a weather permitting project and the contractor is beginning in other neighbors starting next Monday June 3, so if we get rain next week, that could delay the start of our neighborhood.
This is similar to the paving project we had a few summers ago. This is a large road project in our neighborhood and it is going to be inconvenient for many of us for a day. The contractor is coordinating with the postmaster and Waste Management who is our largest neighborhood trash service company with respect to scheduled service. If you have a lawn service company, other service company (e.g. housekeeping, painter, roofer, etc.) or contractor scheduled for that week, we ask that you advise them as soon as you know what day your street is expected to be closed and ask that they may need to be flexible with a change in schedule depending on weather. The worst case is not that they can't get in, but that they get in to your home in the morning, but they can't get their car out. As I understand it there isn't much we can do with package delivery companies, but that they may just have to come back later that day or the next day for delivery.
This plan is getting put together quickly on the schedule and I expect to have more specifics on which streets on which days by Monday June 3. If it helps, I do understand at the moment that they are anticipating starting at the State Bridge side of the neighborhood at the start of the week and working their way towards the Buice entrance. I also understand that once they set a date for your street and assuming they start our neighborhood on the 10th, that date will be your date unless it should rain on your scheduled day and the street is wet. If that happens, your street will be reschedule to the end of the schedule for the neighborhood and whatever streets were scheduled for the next day will remain the streets to be done the next day. Basically you are bumped to the end of the line.
We will continue to communicate as we learn more about the process and timing. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. This is a valuable enhancement to our streets to protect them and extend the life of the streets, so once complete, hopefully you will be happy, but certainly it is a disruption for a day to get there.