Another sign that winter is well in the rearview mirror is at hand. Earlier this week, the City of Bridgeport began to legally advertise for contractors to place bids on the 2019 asphalt paving program. Bids are due on May 8

 

“We hope to begin shortly after awarding the bid,” said City Engineer Beth Fox.

 

Several entire streets, and portions of other streets, are included on this year’s list. The anticipated six-figure project will cover 32,353 square yards of city roadways and nearly 3,000 tons of asphalt.

 

That likely leads to the question of what streets will be seeing upgrades. According to the list sent to contractors to help in shaping their bids, the roads are as follows:

 

All of Kemberry Drive;  James Street from house No. 530 to the dead end; Philadelphia Avenue from the Virginia Avenue Intersection to lower Duncan Avenue; Philadelphia Avenue through Worthington Drive intersection through Center Court;aAll of Church Street; East Olive from Pennsylvania Avenue intersection through the Willis Avenue intersection; Cherry Street from Willis to the dead end; all of Shearwood Forest Drive; all of Emerald Drive; all of Ashmore Road; Lauren Drive from Route 58 through Rosewood Court intersection; all of Natalie Drive; Thompson Drive from the West Virginia Junior College to the end; Center Street Parking Extension,  which is for the extension only.

 

How are the streets chosen? Fox is utilizing a long-standing system that has helped keep the city street’s in relatively good shape.

 

“We keep a spread sheet of when all the streets are paved and when they are due to be paved on a ranking system,” said Fox. “The order can change as each spring we look at the rankings from the previous season to see what’s eligible and what’s not.

 

“Sometimes we find new roads that need to be added to the list due to problems as the result of winter that may have excessive wear and potholes that needs to be expedited,” she continued. “For the most part, we try to do these on the same schedule with changes made based on road evaluations.”

 

The evaluations are actually done by city staff. Fox said each road in the city is driven on to see their status, while complaints received also help dictate how closely each road is looked at.  While Fox likes the system in place that determines when roads are paved, she does hope to make a change in the future.

 

“I would like us to get into a position where we can avoid partial paving roads,” said Fox. “I think it would be better to completely pave an entire section of road.”

 

Each of the roads on this year’s list will be milled and paved. The roads that will see new asphalt will also see a new material called trackless tack. Often after paving a still hot surface is driven on and the result are tire tracks showing up on asphalt surrounding freshly paved roads.

 

“This will eliminate the black streaks you see as the asphalt with this technology will set up within 10 minutes,” she said.

 

The asphalt isn’t the only work that will be done this year. Fox said a large amount of concrete roads in the city will also see repair in the months ahead. She said bids for that could be out for contractors in mid-May.

 

Editor's Note: Photos show past paving projects taking place in Bridgeport.