Bricks restored to their place in history
Staff writer
Historic bricks in the 100 block of Elm St. were gently re-laid last week as part of reconstruction of curbs and guttering and replacement of a too-small drain pipe that leads to Luta Creek.
The original bricks were laid about 100 years ago. Over time, they settled and became uneven, leading to drainage problems.
Compounding the drainage problem was a pipe beneath the street had become too small to handle the water flow.
Vogts-Parga construction project manager Brad Vannocker said a section of the street’s original bricks were removed to place a larger drain pipe where the old one had been.
Then the task of replacing bricks began.
Concrete was poured to form a base for the bricks. Sand was put down to raise bricks to the proper level so all were even.
Bricks then were laid in the same manner as originally laid, Vannocker said.
More sand was put on top to fill spaces between the bricks.
“They wanted us to put back the original bricks,” Vannocker said. “We’re trying to restore it back to the original way it was built.”
When work was completed Friday, nearly all of the block was brick, except for a strip of pavement at the north end.
In 2019, broken curbing and the too-small pipe caused a portion of land west of Elm St. to collapse into Luta Creek.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture grant was used to mitigate the bank slide and repair some curb and gutter on the west side of the street.
The latest project uses a 2022 grant to replace the rest of the curb and gutter on the west side and all curb and gutter on the east side from Lawrence St. to Main St.