City engineering staff on Oct. 28 presented a mill-and-overlay plan covering roughly 5.5 miles of streets and described a tentative cost-sharing arrangement with SEFCO for a short concrete upgrade to serve heavy truck traffic.

Staff listed 12 asphalt streets proposed for two-inch milling and new asphalt and one concrete street for reconstruction: Graham Street (railroad to 19th NW), North Collegiate Drive (Lamar to the Loop), Fitzhugh Avenue (Pine Bluff to Hickory), 24th Street SE (Clarksville to Lamar), Pine Mill Road (east of the Loop), 20th Street SE (Polk to Clarksville), 12th Street SE (Trail to Austin), West Sherman (15th SW to 19th SW), 13th Street NW (Bonham to Campbell), MLK Drive (Fitzhugh to 6th near the school), West Campbell (13th NW to 19th NW) and a short concrete section on 7th Street SW near the SEFCO station. Staff estimated the 7th Street concrete segment at about 500 feet.

Staff said the proposed approach would use leftover bond funds from 2017–18 to get the maximum mileage covered and noted that full concrete reconstruction citywide is unaffordable. For the 7th Street segment, staff reported a tentative verbal agreement with SEFCO to split the upgrade cost 50/50, with each party paying roughly $115,000.

Council discussed project timing and staging. Staff said work would be bid with spring start as weather allows and that North Collegiate — the city’s busiest local street — is a candidate for night work to reduce daytime business impacts. Councilmembers asked staff to coordinate school-zone timing and to work with the city PIO on public notices and detour information when bids and schedules are final.

Several councilmembers asked that the city consider establishing a recurring pavement program to repave sections of the city on a cycle (roughly every 20 years), and staff said they would prepare information for budgeting scenarios and GIS-based zone planning. A few streets (6th and 8th SE) were excluded from the current list because of ongoing litigation, staff said.

Ending
Staff will proceed to bid the project with planned spring construction, return staging and bid results for council review, and coordinate public notifications and school-area scheduling.