Street repair approved

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, June 22, 2010

An “emergency resurfacing” project to repair portions of 26 streets met approval Tuesday in the hands of the Troy City Council.

And, as early as next Friday, the council will make its decision on who will be responsible for the construction, which is estimated to cost around $700,000.

The funding for the street paving will come from an approximately $1 million gas tax fund the city is only allowed to use to make road improvements and for capital projects.

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Troy Mayor Jimmy Lunsford, who recommended the project, said a portion of that funding, which is only allowed for roads, will be depleted and the remainder of the funding will come from the capital outlay fund.

That account is reimbursed monthly with state gas tax percentages.

The roads for resurfacing were divided into two categories based on a 2009 street survey conducted by Watkins Engineering.

Each of the roads in the project received, at the time, the lowest ratings when looking at structural integrity of the streets.

Then, Lunsford said engineers went back in the last month and reevaluated those low-rated roads and determined the city’s greatest needs.

Of those, the streets were split into highest priority, which included: Corman Avenue, Cowart Circle, Curry Circle, Floyd Street, George Wallace Drive, Gibbs Street, Moulton Court, Pecan Street, Pell Avenue, Saint Paul Street, Segars Street, South Franklin Street, Spradley Drive and Warren Court; and the lower priority, which were: Brookwood Drive, another part of Corman Avenue, Creek Stand Road, Cross Circle, Crow Hill Road, McPherson Drive, Monticello Drive, Mountain Brook Lane, Orion Street, Sara Drive, Vicki Lane and East Hodges Street.

But, the council approved the road project that included both categories, a move Lunsford had hoped for from the start.

“I don’t see any difference in the (categories) when you look at them,” he said.

There is no exact construction date set for the project at this time, but the city has assured it will have the resurfacing of George Wallace Drive and Gibbs Street, at a minimum, completed before the start of school in August.

The council will reconvene July 2 at 10 a.m. to award a bid to the project.

In similar business, city employee Brian Davis announced George Wallace Drive would be closed beginning the afternoon of July 6 or early morning of July 7 for a sewer project unrelated to the resurfacing project.

Davis said the road would be closed at most for two weeks, though he hopes it will be a quicker process than planned.

Also in the meeting, the council gave approval to enter the bond market for up to $6 million to fund the construction of CGI. This was after a public hearing, in which no one chose to spoke for or against the proposal.

These bonds will be issued by the city, but Troy University will make payments to Troy, and CGI in turn will make rent payments to the university.

The council also awarded a retail beer and table wine license to Momma Goldberg’s restaurant, set to open on the square in downtown Troy at the start of August.