Stimulus money funds road repairs

Here are some road construction and maintenance projects taking place in Highlands County:

Avon Park

For the most part, commuters traveling through Avon Park don't have to worry about bumpy roads and pot holes, now that the city nears the completion of about nine miles of reconstructed roadway.

With heavy traffic from nearby schools and a church, South Florida Avenue - north of Main Street - got the repaving it needed. A few blocks away construction crews were working on micro-surfacing North Lake Avenue.

These roads are part of a major road reconstruction project the city council approved in December.

The city has invested $444,000 on fixing the cracked, pot-hole ridden streets and microsurfacing others.

"The city is getting cleaned up, we have implemented maintenance programs for roads and drainage," said Public Works Director Julian Deleon, in an e-mail.

The project included $300,000 in reconstruction of about five miles of roadway that was funded with the 2009-2010 budget and $144,000 to microsurface four miles of roadway, which was budgeted using leftover funds from last fiscal year.

During a December meeting, Deleon presented council with findings on 30 segments of roadways that needed immediate repairs. He also suggested microsurfacing some of these roads instead of using traditional road overlay. Although mircosurfacing is not a new technology, it's never been utilized in Avon Park until recently.

The city saved 31 percent in using microsurfacing instead of overlaying more asphalt, which in time could pose curb and gutter drainage issues, Deleon said.

The city's public works department is also looking into cost saving ways to update street signs and road striping.

"We are researching the alternatives to economically correct these issues," Deleon said.

The city expects the current construction to be completed by the end of the week and they are waiting for permits from Southwest Florida Water Management District to complete the remaining pavement needed for this road reconstruction project.

Sebring

Drivers will need to observe a little patience in February as three roadwork projects were either finishing up, under way or planned in Sebring by the Florida Department of Transportation, each using federal stimulus money.

Milling and resurfacing on Memorial Drive began on Wednesday, Feb. 3 by AJAX Paving Industries, said Cindy Clemmons, spokesperson for FDOT on Friday afternoon.

AJAX is the contractor in all three projects.

"It is anticipated that AJAX will be completed with that operation today," she said. "The traffic loops will then need to be cut."

Traffic loops are the wires embedded in asphalt at signalized intersections that sense vehicles waiting to enter the intersection, said Clemmons on Monday.

"Once the loops sense the vehicles, they actuate the signal to change," she said (for example from red to green, etc.)."To embed the loops in the road, the asphalt is cut and the wires are inserted into cuts."

The construction cost for the work on Memorial Drive is $340,000.

When the work is completed on Memorial, construction will move to a short stretch on Home Avenue between the Sebring Parkway and State Road 17.

Clemmons said Monday that she expected roadwork on Home Avenue could begin Thursday.

The city of Sebring was originally to receive $98,000 to resurface the two-tenths of a mile sliver of Home Avenue, out of the $787 billion being offered by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, according to Rob Miller, the city's public works director.

But the project was bid by AJAX for $40,000.

"Everything has come in so much lower than what the engineer estimated originally," said Miller, who pointed out that contractors were very competitive due to the sagging economy.

"That's why there will be a second round of stimulus money," he said.

After the work is completed, the city council agreed to take over maintenance of the short stretch of Home Avenue, once the road has been resurfaced.

The Home Avenue project was just a small part of a "mile-long list" of projects submitted by Miller to the Florida League of Cities in March 2009.

The third project is on Kenilworth Boulevard from Lakeview Drive to Persimmon Avenue, which consists of milling and resurfacing along with improvements to the sidewalk. The sidewalk portion of this project had already begun, said Miller.

The milling and resurfacing will begin Monday, Feb. 15, said Clemmons, at a total cost of $144,740.

But don't get too comfortable.

More roadwork is coming in April or May when the FDOT will begin a milling and resurfacing project from Kenilworth Boulevard on Lakeview Drive to South Ridgewood Drive around The Circle to North Ridgewood Drive and out to Helena Street near the Blue Crab Restaurant.

This will be accomplished with $986,000 in state money, according to Clemmons.

This work will commence in conjunction with the city's Streetscape IIIIV, which will include sidewalks and curbs from The Circle on all of its spokes to Wall Street.

The city's Community Redevelopment Agency did the grant work and developed the design plans before handing the project over to Miller. The CRA has budgeted $250,000 for this project.

Other road work

The city of Avon Park and the Department of Transportation are working together on widening a portion of U.S. 27 from Lake Isis Avenue to the county line. The project will be funded through state stimulus money. The city is responsible for relocating utility lines within the right of way.

In Lake Placid, DOT is working on resurfacing County Road 621 from U.S. 27 to Crocket Road in Lake Placid.

This is a $205,558 project funded through state stimulus money. They are also resurfacing County Road 17, also known as, South Main Avenue, from Poinsettia Street to West Interlake Boulevard in Lake Placid. The $205,921 project is also being funded through stimulus funds.