Columbus will soon begin work on a $5 million project to pave more than 90 streets across the city.
During an address early week to the Columbus Rotary Club, Mayor Robert Smith said the city has 92 streets set for paving, thanks to the bond issue, which the council approved this summer for road and drainage repair.
City Engineer and Neel-Schaffer Vice President Kevin Stafford said the city is advertising for separate asphalt and concrete bids to keep costs low. The bids are due by Oct. 13, and can go before the council as earl as its Oct. 18 meeting.
The paving project includes 19.4 miles of road across the city. Though the council split the money evenly at about $750,000 for each ward, the miles of paving varies from ward-to-ward, as each has different needs.
The project is similar to a $5 million bond issue for paving, drainage and sidewalk improvements the council approved in June 2014. To fund that project, the city raised property taxes by 1.1 mills, an estimated additional tax of $11 annually for a property with an assessed value of $100,000.
Smith said funding for this year’s plan won’t require a tax increase thanks to growing sales tax collections.
Stafford said he’s ridden out with each councilman at least twice to assess their wards’ needs.
“What we’ll do is make the first cut list, and it’s most of the time bigger than what everyone can afford,” Stafford said. “Our list comes from roads that we’re aware of that didn’t make the cut last time, things that other people have made us aware of, things the council has made us aware of — it comes from all different sources.”
As the list is compiled, Stafford said he and councilmen review the streets to determine their condition, what sort of repairs are needed and estimate cost. Once the preliminary work is complete, councilmen receive an assessment that rates the urgency for work on each street. Councilmen can then select which street to address with the funding.
What work happens on what street, Stafford said, will depend on the needs and what councilmen want to get done.
“On all those streets, we may not be doing the same thing,” Stafford said. “We may be doing sidewalk repair, we may be doing a simple overlay or striping. There’s just a myriad of things we may be doing on those streets.”
Work should begin later in the fall, though Stafford said asphalt work will likely slow during the winter because it requires temperatures above 50 degrees. He said it should pick back up in the spring and finish around June 2017.
Ward 1
Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor said he wants to focus on repairing a decaying bridge on College Street.
The bridge, near the youth detention center at the corner of College and 17th streets, has a sinkhole in it.
“There’s a barricade on one side of it,” Taylor said. “It’s one of the projects that I really want to see done before it becomes a real safety hazard. If you’re going east on it, it looks like it’s about to cave in on the east side.”
Stafford said the bridge is in serious condition.
“The College Street culvert is actually failing,” Stafford said. “It has potholes where voids are forming underneath, where material is being lost through the existing culvert. We’re going to have to fully replace it.”
Beyond that, Taylor said there are several general paving projects that he’ll address through the bond issue.
“I’m trying to spread it throughout the ward to the areas that need it the most. There are several streets we are going to take care of.”
Ward 2
Streets in East Columbus near Lehmberg Road the city took in through annexation in 2012 will be Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens’ focus.
“We’re trying to address some of the issues there,” he said. “It’s part of the city now and you have residents out there that need service. They didn’t ask to come in — we brought them in. So we have to give the same service we do everyone else.”
Mickens said his $750,000 won’t be able to pave all of the streets in the area, but the upcoming round of work will serve as a good starting point.
Ward 3
Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box said his funding will be used to address streets throughout his ward. He said there are so many streets that need paving it’s hard to point to one particular project or area.
“They’re just all over,” he said. “I’ve got a lot out east and a lot out north.”
Box said his ward has about 25 residential streets. He added he believes he’s hitting a good cross-section of the ward, while trying to get some of the streets that are in the worst condition.
Ward 4
Streets around Columbus High School are a priority for Ward 4 Councilman Marty Turner for this paving cycle.
“I want to make sure we pave those streets to make sure all of them look good,” he said. “If you look good, you feel good and you’ll do good.”
Turner said he’s also excited to see work about to begin on improving the ditch along Seventh Avenue. The more than $2 million project, which should coincide with paving work in Ward 4, is being overseen by the Greenfield Environmental Multistate Trust. The trust was set up to oversee environmental action in the cleanup process at and around the former Kerr-McGee site on 14th Street North.
The Seventh Avenue ditch project aims to remove creosote from the ditch while making drainage improvements.
Beyond that, Turner said he’s planning to address several streets that he said haven’t been paved in 20 years.
Ward 5
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones said the biggest paving issue in his ward is the sheer number of roads that need it.
He said he needs about $1.7 million to fully address his ward’s paving projects.
“There are some roads that need to be paved but we just don’t have a way to get to them all,” he said. “In the future we might look at some other ways to get them paved.”
Jones said Second Avenue North, which has some of the most traffic in his ward, is one of his top priorities this year. He also said the intersection of Military Road and 18th Avenue, by Lee Middle School, will be addressed with his funding.
Ward 6
Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin said a bridge on Deer Run, off Highway 45, is one of his priorities for the paving project.
Stafford said the bridge is primarily a safety concern.
“It’s not in danger of any structural failure or immediate failure,” Stafford said. “If you look at it, it’s a one-lane bridge with no guard rails. So it’s a safety issue. While it’s not about to fail, it’s an old wooden bridge, and wooden bridges don’t hold up with time well.”
Gavin said he’ll take care of some of the more pressing road needs in his ward, but he can’t get to every road that needs attention.
“I just want the people to understand I’m paving as much road as we can,” he said. “Some have to be put off until later, and you take care of the roads as you can.”
Paving quantities
(rounded to the nearest 0.1 mi):
Ward 1: 3.8 mi.
Ward 2: 3.0 mi.
Ward 3: 4.0 mi.
Ward 4: 2.9 mi.
Ward 5: 3.0 mi.
Ward 6: 2.7 mi.
Total Miles in City: 19.4
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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