City road improvements to get underway next week

By Kayleigh Rahn
It may not be the best timing, as school begins Wednesday, Aug. 22; however, after the Monday, Aug. 13 city council meeting, road improvements will be underway throughout the community beginning next week.

During the meeting, the council approved a contract with Mircosurfacing Contractors of Bridgeton, Mo., at the cost of $263,188.69, which is nearly 17 percent below estimate, and includes the resurfacing of North Parke Street, Northline Road, and North Prairie Street.

“I was actually very pleased with this,” City Administrator Drew Hoel said. “We had talked about expanding our budget a little bit to accommodate that and include everything, and it turns out we don’t need to. We said it’s a very competitive bidding environment, it’s a good bidding environment.”

Beniach Construction of Tuscola will be a subcontractor for the aggregate base coat application.

The crew told Hoel they plan to begin work Monday, Aug. 20.

The crew will complete a process called Cape Seal, which is an application that preserves the road at a lesser cost than removing and replacing the entire structure. The application can extend the life of a road by seven or eight years.

This work will begin in addition to the anticipated South Niles Street mill and overlay work, which is also slated to begin Monday, Aug. 20.

“We realize the time isn’t optimal,” Mayor Dan Kleiss said.

“We really thought that Ne-Co would be here for South Niles about a week or so ago, but timing has worked so that it looks like they will be doing all the work in the coming week,” Hoel added.

Road construction is slated to last about a five working days.

The council is also looking forward to work in the coming weeks that will repair the green, commemorative clock tower at Festival Corner at the intersection of Main and Sale streets.

The full story can be found in the Wednesday, Aug. 15 edition of The Tuscola Journal.