Fulton roads to receive improvements over next year

Fulton City Hall is located at 18 E. Fourth Ave.
Fulton City Hall is located at 18 E. Fourth Ave.

Numerous roads around Fulton will receive improvements over the next year, interim city engineer Kyle Bruemmer said.

During Wednesday evening's City Council meeting, he announced the list of local streets slated for asphalt overlays or chip seal treatments.

"We have slightly less in the budget than usual (for road improvements)," but there are still plenty of streets on the lists to receive much-needed rehabilitation, he said.

Bruemmer and two of his engineers evaluated every single road in town, scoring each from one to 10 (with one being a cratered lunar landscape and 10 being smooth enough to cruise on). They then averaged the results and prioritized the worst roads for treatment.

"The roads getting chip-and-seal were in better condition already," Bruemmer said. "It just seals it up and tries to prevent water infiltration."

A chip seal treatment takes hours to apply, lasts five to seven years and helps preserve a road's structural integrity - preventing the need for more expensive treatment in the future. It involves applying a layer of asphalt binder, laying down aggregate atop that, and rolling over both to mash the rock chips into place.

"It's a very economical way to do the roads," City Councilmember Mary Rehklau said.

For example, though Richland Heights isn't in terrible shape, it's a great candidate for chip sealing, Bruemmer said.

"I'm trying to save it for a long time," Bruemmer said. "It's in good structural shape, but if we let it go further, we'd be spending quite a bit more on it."

Thanks to sharing a bid with Boone County, those repairs could begin in the near future, he added.

A new asphalt overlay may require some milling a day or two in advance, plus a day to apply and allow the asphalt to set. It lasts about 15 years, Bruemmer said.

Jefferson Street, the site of extensive storm sewer work over the last year, didn't make the cut, Councilmember Jeff Stone pointed out.

"An expectation in the community is that it would all be fixed once the projects were done," Stone said. "The area between Second and Fifth Street is full of patches."

"I don't know who promised that, but as far as a new street, no, we're not going to meet that promise (this repair cycle)," Bruemmer said.

Bruemmer estimates the full list of roads to receive asphalt overlays will cost $176,883. These roads include Dixie ($13,068), Lyle ($24,698), Locust ($19,477), Lynn ($12,306), Washington ($9,260), Amhurst ($15,565), Penn ($11,848), Kathy ($29,511) and Westminster Avenue between William Woods and Industrial Road.

Roads slated for chip sealing total $235,832 and include:

Westminster Avenue (Industrial Road to St. Eunice), $13,215

Hockaday Ave., $6,201

Vine Street (5th to 10th), $21,885 and Vine Street (Route Z to 10th), $13,358

Westminster Avenue (Industrial to Outer Road), $6,478

Richard Ault Drive (in Memorial Park), $6,560

East and West Oliver, $6,610

Tyler, $2,531,

Palmer (Chestnut to Oliver), $2,156 and Palmer (Oliver to Tyler), $1,410.

St. Francis Street, $5,465

Richland Heights, $27,278

Northwest, $7,077

Carver, $10,329

Helen Stephens Drive (in Memorial Park), $7,507

Chestnut, $18,168

State (10th to 7th), $13,358

St. Eunice, Cardinal to Westminster, $6,319; Westminster to Bluff, $13,819; and Bluff to the end of the pavement, $25,286

State (Route O to the state hospital's staff circle), $4,946

West 11th Street, $4,392

West Street, $2,403

East Street, $2,403

Peacock, $6,678.