Story by Kevin Woodard
The Normal Town Council approved $2.28 million of asphalt repaving scheduled for this summer at its meeting on Monday night. $1.11 million was for the General Resurfacing Project. That project consists of smaller sections of street. The other project, the Motor Fuel Tax (MFT) program will pave larger street sections. The cost of that program is $1.17 million. Rowe Construction, of Bloomington, will be the contractor for both projects.
Rowe was the single bidder on these projects. Last year the General Resurfacing project contractor was H. J. Eppel out of Pontiac. Eppel chose not to submit a bid this year. This project is intentionally limited to smaller street sections in an effort to attract more bidders.
One thing that might be discouraging other contractors is Normal’s Local Preference Policy. That policy gives a $50,000 advantage to the local bidder on projects of this size. Cities 92.9 has learned that the town council could waive the policy on this project if they choose to do so. That might be something the council wants to consider another year to attract more bidders and possibly save residents money.
The Local Preference Policy does not apply to the MFT program because it is not allowed to be used on projects funded by state and federal tax dollars.
These two projects will pave just over two miles of town streets. The town has 435 miles of streets. If all streets were asphalt and if Normal wasn’t doing any other asphalt work, then this would be an 86 year cycle to repave every street. However things aren’t that simple.
If we estimate half the streets are Portland cement concrete we would get that down to a 43 year cycle on repaving asphalt streets. If we estimate these two projects represent half of the asphalt paving that Normal will do this year then the combination would be down to a 21 year cycle. If that is the case then Normal may be close to sustainability but is more likely falling behind on its asphalt maintenance.
Normal is currently finishing up development of its Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) pavement management program. This program will be a tremendous help to the Public Works Department in developing its asphalt paving program for next year. As part of this program Normal will get an update of its inventory of all local roads and streets. The condition of the streets will be determined. According to the PASER manual, city engineers will be able to plan asphalt resurfacing programs on such characteristics as “roughness (ride), surface distress (condition), surface skid characteristics and structure (pavement strength and deflection).”
Normal is also trying out a new technology in order to increase the life of city streets. According to the council report, “On N. Parkside Road, from Braden Drive to Gregory Street, a process called crack-and-seat, well established in neighboring states and being introduced to Illinois, will be used. Prior to placement of a hot-mix asphalt overlay, the existing concrete pavement is fractured into smaller segments by controlled vertical impacts, reducing the slabs’ effective length without undue loss of structural strength. The cracked slabs are seated with a roller to reestablish support between the subgrade and existing concrete.”