Mother Nature has taken a toll on the streets of Creston, causing a myriad of potholes and headaches for vehicles driving on the city’s streets.
In Kevin Kruse, public works director for the city of Creston , said, in terms of potholes, this year has been worse than years past.
“I think just the length of the winter and streets seem to do a lot of frost heaving this winter, which caused a lot of the problem,” said Kruse.
Several city crew members have been tasked with temporarily fixing the pothole-ridden streets over the past few weeks. Now that the weather is more conducive to street repairs, Feldhacker Contracting and Black Top Services have been contracted by the city to complete a number of more permanent patching and street overlay projects.
Austin Smith, engineer at Garden and Associates, described the projects.
“It’s essentially cutting out sections of the pavement that are past their useful life. If we had overlay on the top of that, then the overlay itself would have broke down more rapidly. When we patch it, it will give that overlay more life,” he said.
The 2019 city street projects include:
• South Cherry Street, from the corporate limits to Highway 34, which is estimated to be completed early next week.
• Bureau Street, from West Jefferson to West Adams streets. This project is slated to begin early next week.
• Russell Street, from Lincoln Street to Sumner Avenue, and from Sumner Avenue to Jefferson, where crews will make storm sewer improvements and complete patchwork.
• West Montgomery Street, from Walnut to Cherry streets, overlay with a couple utility adjustments.
These projects will conclude in June or July, when Black Top Services will overlay what Feldhacker Contracting patched.
Howard Street
Since June, city crews and contractors have been working on West Howard Street. The project spans from Sumner Avenue to Oak Street, with a current closure – from Sumner Avenue to North Street – which is due to carry over street repair work from 2018.
“From Sumner to Spruce, the mainline (paving) has already been poured,” said Smith. “We did that last fall ... The full width of Howard Street is down, but we’re pouring back the intersection of Jarvis and Spruce right now.”
Smith said the project was delayed because of a rainy fall season and winter snow cover. However, it was originally delayed by Windstream Communications, which did not remove its fiber optic cables as planned until Friday.
Now that the cables have been removed, Smith expects the full project to be complete within three months.
Coming up
In June, street repair crews will begin work on East Howard Street, from Roosevelt to Harding avenues, and work toward Osage Street. Ag businesses along East Howard Street will be able to access their properties during that time via new or existing concrete.