City picks streets for resurfacing

The weather is warming. Flowers are budding. If the asphalt plants aren’t already churning, they will be soon.

Construction crews should begin milling and filling Columbus streets this month as the city kicks off its annual repaving plan.

Columbus City Council last week approved an $11.2 million contract with Kokosing Construction to resurface 130 streets and replace 593 curb ramps with new ones that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Kokosing will grind away the top layer of pavement, make deeper repairs if needed and then cover the surface with a fresh layer of asphalt.

That contract is the first of three streets packages that likely will total about $30 million for 2017 resurfacing, continuing an annual plan that dates to the city’s income tax increase nearly eight years ago.

Resurfacing the first package of streets is scheduled to run from March 24 to Sept. 29, though wet weather could push it back. That work will be concentrated on the West and Northwest sides. The other two projects will include streets in other parts of the city.

A two-mile stretch of Indianola Avenue between Morse Road and Oakland Park Avenue in Clintonville is the biggest piece to be resurfaced in the initial project. Portions of Smokey Row, Galloway and West Case roads also will be repaved.

The city has been spending about $30 million a year since 2010 to repave its streets.

That’s well short of the $60 million a year a 2009 report said the city would need to spend just to maintain its streets, but far more than the small chunk of federal stimulus money the city used that year for repaving.

The city passed an income tax increase that year and began earmarking millions for repaving. Last year, about $33 million of the city’s $1 billion capital budget was dedicated to resurfacing.

“These investments will make Columbus more walkable, more accessible and, ultimately, a better place to live,” Councilman Shannon G. Hardin said in a statement.

Every street that will be repaved in 2017 hasn’t been set yet, said James Young, city design and construction administrator. The full list won’t be official until the city’s capital budget is approved later this year.

Cleveland Avenue south of Rt. 161 will be part of the packages bid later this year, Young said.

Pavement condition data is part of the equation to determine which streets are resurfaced, Young said, but not the only factor considered. Traffic volume also is a factor.

The city tries to spread resurfacing across the city, he said, but sometimes it can get a better price by having contractors repave streets that are nearer to one another even if they aren’t yet in dire need of new asphalt.

“If we’re in the area, we try to get the other streets that might be in fair shape,” he said. “It’s about getting the best price for resurfacing.”