After a long summer, Ohio University students will return in August to see some of the more beat-up roads around town patched up and smooth — or at least, on their way there.
Engineering and Public Works Director Andy Stone will steer a bus full of Athens City Council members, city officials and residents this Saturday at 8:30 a.m. to view some of the city’s more damaged roads, rating them and assessing them as problem areas as they go.
Stone said he hasn’t drawn up a map yet, but the annual tour tends to cover most of Athens’ high-traffic roads and smaller residential streets to size up their seasonal damage.
After this year’s harsh winter, Stone said he’s expecting to see some large potholes.
“It was one of the worst winters we’ve had since I’ve worked for the city,” Stone said. “It was very damaging to roadways and water lines as well. We expect to put quite a bit of hot mix material down.”
The hot mix asphalt is used during the warmer months to repair potholes, as opposed to the less-effective cold mix used during the winter to make smaller improvements. Stone said he expects the city will spend $250,000 to $500,000 this summer on general road repair.
Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl said last year the city spent more than $350,000 on general road repair, and he expects to dig deeper into the city’s pockets this year to make up for the cold winter.
“We usually set aside at least $300,000,” Wiehl said. “They’re going to have a list of the roads that need to be worked on; some of them will be borderline, but some will definitely need help. Then there’s a gray area.”
That “gray area” will be rated accordingly by anyone who attends the roads tour though a packet that Stone hands out, which denotes the pavement condition rating based on what degree of repair the road requires.
If the concerns are more related to infrastructure, Wiehl said the city might hold off on repairs.
That’s what they’ve been doing for the past few years with West Union Street and South Richland Avenue, which will see massive overhauls this summer totaling about $5 million, according to a previous Post article.
The city is looking to cut costs with both of the roads by buying the sewer and water line materials in bulk within the next few weeks, and it will start repairs shortly after, Wiehl said.
West Union is anticipated to be finished by the summer, and the $4 million repairs to South Richland Avenue are expected to extend into November 2014.
“They’re both supposed to begin two weeks after graduation,” Councilwoman Michele Papai, D-3rd Ward, said. “I don’t know if Union will begin that early, but Richland will.”
As far as other projects to be tackled this summer, Stone said the largest non-roads project will be improvements to the wastewater treatment plant located on East State Street, which have been in the works since 2011.
Stone added the project likely won’t be finished by the end of the summer.
The Northwest bike path spur project will also be continued, connecting a bike path at the West State Street Park to a rehabilitated bridge at the Hocking River.
“We’re working on the design right now, we’ll be doing some internal construction,” Stone said. “I don’t think it’ll be too expensive, it’ll cost about $185,000.”
Meanwhile, the Columbus Road bike path spur project won’t begin until this fall. Stone said the city will continue to look into grant money to fund it throughout the summer.
The project is estimated to cost $1.3 million.
“We’ll need to have several clearances in place before that can begin,” Stone said. “There is also a design process. We’re trying to line up the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Clean Ohio Trails grant.”
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