Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Street project will be anything but simple in Prescott

Anyone expecting the street project to be quick and easy will be sorely disappointed.

Mike Marlar, project engineer, said it will take a minimum of two years to overlay all of Prescott's streets.

Marlar told the Prescott City Council, at its regular monthly meeting, held Monday, April 19, he had driven all of the streets, examining them to see what was needed to repair them properly. In some areas, he said, there are needs other than overlays, as several streets are cracked and there are drainage problems to be addressed.

It will cost the city between $70,000 and $100,000 per mile to do a two-inch overlay, with the overall plan estimated to cost $3 million. A bond issue was passed to fund the street project.

Before any street can be overlaid, he said, it must first be prepared. The contractor will likely use a rotary broom to get the existing streets ready and capable of bonding with the new asphalt in most places, but, Marlar added, there are places with curb and gutter that will have different needs, as asphalt doesn't need to get into the gutters.

Where the asphalt is cracked on the edge of the street and have grass growing, he said, the crews will run over them with a grader to clean them up. Once this is done, a track coat will be applied to prepare the surface to bond the old with the new.

In areas where there are depressions in the street, these places will be leveled out, prepared and topped.

The biggest problem area, and problem in general, will be Martin Street and Moore Lane by Prescott High School. Marlar said both need to be widened, but it would be costly. To widen Martin to two lanes with curb and gutter would cost between $350,000 and $400,000, while the repairs on Moore would be $250,000 to $300,000. Together, it would run around $700,000.

Curb and gutter would have to be done on Martin because there would be nowhere to put a ditch for drainage without taking parts of people's front yards, according to Jon Chadwell, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office. He suggested this street work be included as a deductive alternate to get a true idea of what it would cost to properly repair them.

But, Marlar said, there would be additional costs with doing curb and gutter work there because in digging down for drainage, there would be the need to move some utilities.

Chadwell said there will be several items in the project that are unit priced. Unit pricing is what the contractor would charge to do the specific work. Some of the unit pricing will include bridges near McRae Middle School.

Marlar said ditches in the MMS area need to be cleared for better drainage. There are three bridges, though, over major drainage ditches needing to be replaced. He suggested replacing the bridges with concrete box culverts, as the bridges, he said, don't look "structurally adequate."

The removing and/or replacing of drain inlets where there is curb and gutter also needs to be in the bid, he said.

Chadwell said they looked at more than just those three bridges, but these appear to be the worst ones and need replacing because of school traffic.

There was talk about the flooding problem with the ditches on Laurel Street. Chadwell said they are looking at putting a concrete head wall in to deflect the water coming from the park and keep is in the ditches. "When we road around, we came up with $10 million or more on a wish list. We'll get to all we can with the money we have."

All, though, according to the bond issue passed, will be making sure every street in town has at least a two-inch overlay of new asphalt.

"I'm not sure the bond issue covers ditch work," said City Attorney Glenn Vasser . "It's one of the concerns I have. We put a lot in, including paving, curb and gutter and widening. I'm sure the city has the capability to clean the ditches."

Turning to the topic of culverts, Chadwell said they saw several smashed and others needing to be cleaned out. He and Marlar discussed tapering the paving into drive ways to make them smooth for homeowners and eliminate unnecessary bumps.

"When we bid the thing out," Chadwell said, "it will take about two years to get it done. There are a lot of factors involved, and a lot of the work is dependent on the weather."

When questioned about how many bids are expected, Marlar said this would depend on how hungry and busy the contractors are, but he told the council it could expect between five and 10. Chadwell said when the story about the paving project hit the papers in December, his office received five calls from contractors concerning the bid.

According to Chadwell, once the bids are let and a contractor is hired, Marlar will set a schedule of work for the city street department crews to do. Contractors, he said, will want to start where the city crews have done prep work. The overall idea is for the city crews to stay at least one section ahead of the contractors.

However, he said, it will be up to the contractor where the crews begin working. The idea, though, will be to get the area done around the three schools first during the summer when there is less traffic and no students. This way school won't be disrupted for the construction.

Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor said Centerpoint Energy-Arkla wanted to know when and where the work will be done so it's crews can go in and repair leaks in the natural gas lines.

Perry Nelson, superintendent of the Prescott Water Department, said there needs to be some way for permits to be issued to utility companies who may need to cut into the streets, so they would be responsible for making the needed repairs.

Marlar said the city could use the same ordinance that's in place in Little Rock and North Little Rock. The passage of such an ordinance would ensure utility companies, including Prescott's, would be required to repair any damage they caused to the streets.

After getting the council's approval, Marlar said it would take about 30 days to get bids.