By Chris Moore

chris.moore@panews.com

 

NEDERLAND — With just a few more items left on the Nederland Avenue Project punch list, the city is looking ahead to more street work this summer. Last year’s major project came in under budget, allowing the city to roll over the extra money to the upcoming repairs.

At the City Council meeting Monday, councilmembers took steps to begin the process.

“We’re going to bid out the hot mix projects, and then the concrete work,” City Manager Chris Duque said. “One of the lessons we learned from this past year was to not bid it all together. We noticed that there were some issues. If you’re going to do concrete, you prefer to have a contractor where that is their specialty as opposed to having them subbing it out. When you sub it out, you have less control over the subs.”

This time around, two separate companies will handle the hot mix overlay and the concrete/asphalt.

One of the areas the city will consider is 33^rd Street. The road is lined with trees, which makes the road cave and dries out the ground beneath the street.

“The root barrier is a treatment you put on the edge of the road and it prevents the roots from growing,” Duque said. “We did it on 18^th Street and it worked. It’s a longer process because you have to have an arborist do the work. Sometimes you have to have the tree removed because the roots are no longer stable.”

 

Hot mix streets

• 26^th Street from Gary Avenue to Detroit Avenue
• 28^th Street from Gary Avenue to West Chicago Avenue
• S 3^rd Street from Nederland Avenue to Drainage District 7 ditch.
• Avenue D from Texas Avenue to South 6^th Street
• S 37^th from Highway 365 to Park Drive
• S 36^th Street from Avenue H to Park Drive
• Park from Highway 69 to Hill Terrace Drive
• 7^th Street from Nederland Avenue to Boston Avenue

 

Concrete/ asphalt streets

• 33^rd Street from Nederland Avenue to Helena Avenue
• The intersection at 17^th Street and Boston Avenue

 

Duque said the work should take about 90 to 120 days to complete and the city is looking to have the project wrapped up by the end of September. Duque said the work should start at the end of June or the beginning of July. The city will look to complete the roads that have heavy school traffic first that way they can be complete before teachers report at the beginning of August.