More projects added to street repair program

Three blocks of street resurfacing are being tacked onto this summer?s street repair program.

With the latest street reconstruction project coming in below the engineer?s estimate, the Fairfield City Council Public Safety and Transportation Committee met Monday to determine how to spend the remaining $486,000 designated for streets.

In addition to resurfacing Third Street from Adams Avenue to Jefferson Avenue and Hempstead Avenue from Main Street to Third Street, the committee recommends paving the north/south alley just west of the post office, purchasing a new piece of equipment for the street department and putting a portion toward seal coating. The proposal totals $292,300.

At the suggestion of city administrator Jeff Clawson, the committee intends to roll the rest into a fund for street repairs next summer. Engineer Jerry Long of French-Reneker-Associates Inc. said that fund could be supplemented with up to $140,000 currently designated for contingencies on this summer?s project.

?With this program that you guys approved a couple years ago, you?re spending $3 million over a three year period ? wonderful ? but where?s the money coming from for years four, five and six?? Clawson said. ?When the bond money is gone, I don?t see where that revenue stream gets replaced because we?ve pledged the Local Option Sales Tax money to pay the debt. For a few years until that?s cleaned up, you?re really down to a very limited amount of dollars to keep the streets going.?

Public works superintendent Darrel Bisgard said a Crafco or Durapatch machine could help preserve the streets by sealing cracks and patching potholes, even in 30-degree weather. He reported other street departments are thrilled with the equipment that blows out holes and fills them with oil and rock chips.

Bisgard said the $65,000 machine requires little maintenance. He reported the city spends anywhere from $100 to $130 per ton on cold mix ? the machine?s mixture would cost around $70 per ton.

?I?m excited about this,? said councilman Ron Adam, expressing his longtime desire to do more about potholes.

Bisgard also suggested now would be a good time to finish the downtown alleys, which are a prime subject of complaints. However, Adam was apprehensive about the repairs to underground lines that might need to accompany that work, and councilman Michael Halley felt the alleys don?t get as much traffic as many of the streets needing repair.

The committee did agree the post office alley is a high-traffic area that would benefit from paving.

The committee?s recommendation needs the full council?s approval before becoming official.

Also Monday, the committee touched on the $135,000 appropriated for seal coating. Bisgard said he should be able to double coat a quarter of the city?s seal coated streets.

Once the four-year program to address the city?s 132 blocks of seal coating is complete, Bisgard intends to maintain them with a single seal biennially.