Arnold City Council members recently agreed to pay Spencer Contracting in Arnold another $416,613.28 to complete asphalt repairs and street projects this year.
The council previously agreed to pay the company $966,027.63 to repair 14 streets. Some of those repairs were for streets in the Southern Aire subdivision, but it was determined more work was needed in that neighborhood and would cost an extra $405,813.28, Public Works Director Judy Wagner said.
In addition, $10,800 in work was needed to lay an asphalt track around the new playground at Arnold City park.
When Spencer Contracting crews began work on the Southern Aire subdivisions streets on April 30, they discovered the concrete base under the asphalt was in worse shape than anticipated, Wagner said.
“It was hollow underneath the asphalt,” she said.
The problem was compounded when heavy rains recently swept through the area, forcing work to stop for several days at the start of May.
“When they started work again in early May, there were huge voids under the curb (that had been cut away),” Wagner said. “I went out and looked at it and said, ‘No, we can’t do this.’ We brought in a milling machine the first week of May to remove all of the asphalt.”
After the asphalt was removed, it rained again, causing additional problems with the streets throughout the subdivision, she said.
Wagner said Alice Drive was affected the most. The subdivision’s other streets include Jere Lane, Jere Court, Georgia Drive, Diane Drive, Deborah Drive and Ellen Drive.
“On Alice, we could not save any pavement,” she said. “That was the biggest decision to remove all of the asphalt pavement.”
Wagner said because the asphalt overlay was removed on Alice Drive, a dump truck that was delivering materials and a Rock Community Fire Protection District truck got stuck on the roads.
She said the city has poured rock over the affected areas as a temporary fix, and as of May 17, all of the streets were drivable. However, most of the roads only have one lane.
Wagner said the damaged concrete will be removed from the subdivision and then a 4-inch rock base will be added. Next, 6 inches of concrete will be poured over the base, and after all of the concrete work is finished, a 2-inch asphalt overlay will be installed.
“Weather pending, it could take four to six weeks,” Wagner said on May 17. “There is a lot of staging work to move traffic over and only pour in front of a half of a double driveway at a time. It is time consuming.”
Wagner said the city will pay for the additional work with money from the Public Works Department budget, and then Arnold will be reimbursed through its portion of Jefferson County’s 1/2-cent sales tax for road and bridge projects. The county keeps the bulk of the money from the tax to use throughout unincorporated Jefferson County and then distributes the rest to cities based on population and road miles in those cities.
Wagner said Arnold has about $6 million to draw from the county road and bridge tax.
“We still have plenty in there to cover future projects,” she said.
Wagner said there will be a few full road closures in the subdivision during the project, but those closures should only last about 15 to 20 minutes. Because the streets interconnect, typically there will be an alternate route to reach Arnold Tenbrook Road, though.
Wagner said workers will move for traffic when blocking Jere Court, which ends in a cul-de-sac, and the portion of Deborah Drive that has a dead end.
“I have confidence our contractor and team at the city will get this done as quickly as possible with the council approving the additional funding,” she said. “The city is grateful that the residents have been patient with us and have used caution in the work zones. It is definitely not easy when you live in this mess. We promise it will look excellent when we are finished.”