The city of Columbus’ second town hall on paving saw some debate between council members about potential solutions for problem roads, as well as citizen complaints about the impact paving has on “morale.”
The meeting, held Tuesday night, was the last of two paving-related town halls held at the lower level of the Trotter Convention Center.
The first was held March 23 and drew a handful of citizens in person and about 200 on Facebook Live.
Tuesday’s meeting drew similar numbers, both in person and via Facebook Live. City Engineer Kevin Stafford, as well as Councilmen Joseph Mickens of Ward 2, Rusty Greene of Ward 3 and Stephen Jones of Ward 5, were among city leaders to attend.
Stafford repeated his presentation from last week, hitting the high points of how and why the city chooses to pave the roads it does. One portion of that presentation dealt with avoiding drainage issues by milling off the top couple of inches of asphalt before repaving, so the surface of the road was flush with the curb and gutter.
Greene wanted to know if the city could simply seal-coat roads that did not have to be milled, rather than repaving them.
“Sometimes an option is to spray to just seal the cracks to keep them from getting worse,” Greene said. “Is that ever an option on some of our streets?”
Stafford said there were some issues with that.
“It’s an option, and it costs you about 10 percent of the cost of an overlay and buys you about two years,” Stafford said. “Then you’re back doing it again. The condition of the street needs to be in pretty good shape to actually give you some life.”
Greene wondered if seal coating roads should be worked into the city’s future plans as a preservation measure, but Stafford didn’t think it was a good idea.
“You can make both arguments, but I tell people to look at their state (departments of transportation),” Stafford said. “They don’t see the savings in it because there are so many other factors that play into what tears up a road. What you’re talking about is a surface treatment only.”
Seal-coating adds some other costs, Stafford said.
“Every time you seal-coat that road, you have to re-stripe it,” Stafford said. “Every time you do that, you have a new contractor, a new bidding process. I can’t tell you another DOT or city that does it that way.”
On the subject of striping, Greene asked what the city’s policy was when it came to striping — or not striping — roads.
“Residential streets do not need striping,” Stafford said. “If it’s over 5,000 vehicles per day, we put thermoplastic on. It’s about five times more expensive than paint, but because of the traffic there’s a lot of cars running over it and they last longer. All commercial roads get striping as well.”
Residential roads get striped “to an extent,” Stafford said.
“You have stop bars at stop signs, at minimum,” he said. “Seventh Street is residential, but it’s also a cut-through. That’s going to be striped center-line all the way through.”
Any block-and-grid streets, such as in the downtown area, don’t get striped because they are too narrow, he said.
“They are only 24 feet wide,” he said. “If we stripe the center line by those streets, it’s painfully obvious that there is no room to be parking on the street. That’s one of the traffic calming measures for a downtown (area). If you don’t stripe that center line, you’re telling people you have to get along with your neighbor.”
The need to weave slightly due to parked cars also tends to slow people down as they drive through the area, Stafford said.
Citizen George Hazard said paving issues impact citizen morale.
“Everybody in town uses these streets, and they are a factor in our city’s morale,” he said. “It affects our pride in our city, or lack of pride.”
Hazard said one of his chief complaints was apparent dips in roads that had, to all appearances, been recently patched.
“The patches (on the roads) for whatever reason disintegrate and leave you with a big dip in what appears to be fresh material,” Hazard said. “Do the patches disintegrate because we can’t afford the best material, or because we can’t afford certain pieces of equipment?”
Stafford explained it is the result of utility work.
“The utility is going in and repairing a collapsed line, for example, or cutting a gas meter off,” he said. “… They backfill the holes with limestone and don’t compact it in lifts. It compacts under its own weight, and they let people drive over it to compact it (more).”
About a month later they come back and patch the spot with asphalt, Stafford said.
“The limestone is still settling,” Stafford said. “Over time it compacts on down, and you get a dip.”
The town halls may be over, but the city still wants the public’s input on paving and paving-related issues. There is a survey for citizens to give feedback about paving needs and how they would like to see paving money spent. Physical copies are available at City Hall, but it is also available online at www.surveymonkey.com/r/RSKCZ3D.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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