Millions to go to street repairs
By Rochelle Moore
Published in News on March 15, 2017 10:09 AM
More than 100 sections of city roadways will be resurfaced this year and funded through a portion of the $10 million in voter-approved general obligation bonds.
City staff plan to secure $5.5 million in bond sales on May 2, and the remaining $4.5 million in 2018, said Kaye Scott, Goldsboro finance director.
This year's round includes $2.5 million for street resurfacing projects and $3 million for the partial cost to construct a future multisport complex on Oak Forest Road, Scott said.
The bond repayment is expected to last 20 years, on a fixed interest rate that will be determined at the time of May sale, Scott said.
Goldsboro voters backed the bonds with nearly 85 percent voting in favor of the street bond and more than 81 percent voting in favor of the multisport complex funding in November.
The first phase of road resurfacing is planned to start in June, with the completion of the 180-day project expected by the end of the year, said Marty Anderson, Goldsboro chief city engineer.
The council approved the first list of streets planned for repaving in September. Anderson presented an updated list to council recently, which more than tripled the length of roadways planned for repaving.
A miscalculation in the length of the roads, originally measured in yards instead of feet, was made but later changed, leaving more money for resurfacing, Anderson said.
The new list includes 103 blocks of city maintained streets, which are mostly evenly split in each of the city council's six districts.
"I try to balance it out so that we cover an equal amount of need in each district," Anderson said.
The city will start taking bids for the estimated $2.8 million project in April and a contract could be finalized in May.
If the cost of the project is greater than the $2.5 million in bond financing, other city funding will be used to fill in the gap, said Scott Stevens, city manager.
Some of the larger sections of roadways planned for repaving include South Slocumb Street, from Olivia Lane to Elm Street and from Walnut to Spruce streets; sections of East Holly Street; Beech Street, from Jackson to Jefferson Street; Hunter's Creek Drive, from Wintergreen Place to 308 Hunter's Creek Drive; and the majority of roads in the West Haven public housing community.
"A lot of these are picking up where we left off on previous resurfacing projects," Anderson said.
City staff, including Anderson, plans to complete a pavement condition survey of all city maintained roads, which will help with developing future resurfacing lists.
"We're hoping to have that complete by fall, like October this year," Anderson said. "By doing it in-house, you're saving $30,000 to $40,000."
The bond financing is planned to provide $2.5 million for resurfacing in 2018 and $2 million in 2019, Anderson said.
Without the bond, the work would have taken more than a decade to finish, Anderson said.
"Based on historic expenditures on resurfacing, we averaged $500,000 a year," he said. "All this money comes out of the general fund. Without the $7 million in street bonds, it would have taken us 10 to 12 years to get there, if we hadn't spent the bond."
The street bond was also intended to provide funding to construct paved roads in areas where dirt streets exist, Stevens said.
Plans are being developed to add asphalt, without curb and gutter, to Humphrey Street, from Fourth to Eighth Street.
In August, the council approved spending $270,000 to add two blocks of paved roads along Humphrey Street, from Fourth to Sixth Street. The council recently directed Anderson to add two more blocks to extend road construction to Eighth Street.
Anderson is still compiling the cost for the additional work, and staff are considering whether to charge assessment fees to residents along the road.
The city's annual budget includes $500,000 for road resurfacing projects and another $270,000 from money collected from annual license fees. Both sources could be used toward adding pavement to dirt roads, Stevens said.