Asphalt starts pouring on B Avenue

WASHINGTON — Contractors began preparations for an asphalt overlay on Avenue B in Washington week, in a project city officials say will drastically improve a street long plagued by patchy pavement, bumpy rides and scattered gravel.

City Administrator Joe Gaa announced the project’s start at a city council meeting last week. He added that the work would take approximately seven working days, setting a timeline that would see the project finished well ahead of its Aug. 15 deadline.

“It’s the first time we’ve done new asphalt on a street in quite some time,” he said. “B hasn’t always been the best street over the last few years, they’ve endured some projects. But they will, in a week or so, have the best street in town, so we’re excited about that.”

Stretching between Madison and Tyler Street, the overlay project is the only major roadwork endeavor planned in town this summer.

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At $282,165, the winning bid from Norris Asphalt Paving Co. several months ago outsized the city’s $200,000 budget for asphalt projects in Fiscal Year 2026, and made a considerable dent in the $100,000 fund originally earmarked for chip and seal streets.

The route is a well-traveled corridor to Washington High School from much of the city’s west and north neighborhoods, and city officials expect traffic there to grow considerably this fall as the district opens a middle school wing on the property, replacing the former location for grades 6-8 on Fourth Avenue, which was constructed in 1918.

In a late-May interview, Mayor Millie Youngquist said the asphalt overlay was badly needed after years of sewer work left the hilly, half-mile stretch of B Avenue in relative disrepair. Prior to construction, large cracks were visible in the pavement, and some areas of the road were noticeably patched with gravel and mismatched surfaces.

“It’s going to be, I think, a great improvement, especially with the opening of the new middle school,” Youngquist said at the time. “We just decided, instead of doing little patches here and there, to do a large stretch, and we had the money in our budget for it.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com