Marysville officials are looking at a smaller list of streets to be included in the repair program than in recent years past.
The city is proposing to resurface portions or all of Millstone Drive, Millington Way, Mill Park Drive, White Oak Court, Quail Hollow Drive, Pearl Court, Carmel Drive, Claudia Lane, Springwood Lane, North Plum Street and state Route 31.
The 2020 city budget includes $500,000 for the paving program. The city has also budgeted $60,000 from the water department budget for North Plum Street. City Project Manager Marc Dilsaver said the street needs repaved because of the water line replacement in 2019. He said since that project caused the need, the fix will come from that project’s budget.
“We get a better price on the asphalt when we group that as part of a larger project,” Dilsaver said.
He added, “we just didn’t get the water line in in time to get that resurfaced last year.”
Work on state Route 31 is being paid for by the state through a $98,000 Small Cities grant. The state Route 31 Phase II Improvements project will address traffic concerns along Route 31, between U.S. 33/U.S. 36 and Mill Road and the Northwoods Drive extension between Mill Road and Route 31.
Through all of the projects, the city will resurface or repave 1.7 miles of streets in 2020. That represents about 1.66% of the city’s streets.
Mike Andrako, public service director for the city of Marysville, has said the city has more than 100 miles of streets and the public service department has tried to pave about 4% of them each year. He said the cost is about $1.5 million annually. He said that if the city can create roads that last 25 years and can repave 4% of the streets each year, all city streets will be repaved as they approach the end of their life span.
“As long as we can appropriate that $1.5 million and shoot for 4% each year, our street ratings should stay the same or even go up a little,” Andrako has said.
He added that by evaluating streets each year, “we try to stay ahead of the curve so we are not trying to play catchup.”
Dilsaver said this is the first year in a while the city has not met the $1.5 million request.
“This year, the city budget dictates that we are just not able to hit that 4% this year,” Dilsaver said.
He said that when money is tight, it is important to use the city’s established process. Each autumn, city officials drive every street in the city and give each a Pavement Condition Rating (PCR). Dilsaver said the streets selected represent those in the worst condition.
“The streets that are included are in pretty bad shape and we will be able to address some serious needs that we have,” Dilsaver said, noting the city does consider proximity and street length in an effort to, “get the most bang for our buck with these projects.”
All the streets as part of the city repaving project are rated as poor with scores below 60.
The portion of state Route 31 to be improved has a rating of 62.
Dilsaver said it is anticipated projects will go to bid in early February and bids will be opened later that month. He said once bids are opened and prices known, there could be minor adjustments made to the proposal. He said that if bids come in high, city officials could look to “trim that in some way.” If they come in low, Dilsaver said the city will look at projects that were “on the bubble” and might fit into the remaining budget.