Paving season getting underway
Kokomo missed out on grants, will pave less; county gets aggressive with paving
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It’s paving and construction season in Kokomo and Howard County. Already, motorists are redrawing their routes to work, church, and home as the first projects come online. But the city’s paving plans are a bit smaller this year.
The city was delivered a setback in April when it learned that it will not receive Community Crossings grant dollars from the State of Indiana for paving projects. That loss resulted from the fact that a project from the previous round of funding was incomplete.
“Unfortunately, Park Avenue is still open,” said Moore. “Community Crossings funds were used for Park Avenue. Because of an unforeseen sewer issue that we stumbled upon, and then the concrete shortage, it put the completion back longer than anyone had anticipated. And there are still items that were left considered open.”
Moore explained that the city intends to apply for the next round of Community Crossings grants. The deadline for that application is in July. But the delay in funding means some major projects won’t happen this year, foremost among them Hoffer Street from Home Avenue to Ind. 931.
“It puts Hoffer on hold, but that kind of helped us,” said Moore. “We are forced to take a step back to say, ‘Okay, do we actually need to do Hoffer Street to the extent that we had planned?’ It was going to be more of a narrowing with more curb work and such.
“So, we're looking at the size and scope of the project to see if we can back that cost down to maximize the potential Community Crossings grant impact. Or we may have to regroup and pull from other funding sources internally and tackle it ourselves.”
The loss of grant funding doesn’t mean paving season is cancelled. On the contrary, there are some major projects still on the schedule, the largest of which will be completed by outside contractors.
“The major one that we're still planning on addressing, and engineering has assured me that it's still part of the plan with the funding available, is LaFountain Street, basically from the merge of Washington and LaFountain south to Lowe's,” said Moore.
Any other major projects will rely upon funding and contractor availability to become a reality. But the city’s street department will be busy all summer tackling smaller projects, most notably the repaving of several alleys.
“The street department will use 7,700 tons of asphalt to repave streets,” said Moore. “And that doesn't include the dozen or so alleys that we're going to tackle. We’re going to pave some alleys. They've been beat to holy heck for a number of years.
“I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that it's been four years to do it. It was one of the concerns that I heard four years ago. Look at what our trash trucks are doing to our alleys. Not just the ruts and such, but the building damage. We're going to try and get as aggressive as we can, looking at hopefully a dozen or so, upwards to 20, alleys.”
Howard County is also doing some aggressive paving this year. Unlike the city, it received Community Crossings grant money for 2023. According to Howard County Highway Superintendent Amber Tolle, bids were received on May 1, and once awarded, the county will begin paving as quickly as possible.
“We typically start on the northeast side of the county and kind of work our way around and end on the northwest side,” said Tolle. “We’ll be paving as quick as we can.”
The county also will address a damaged structure on County Road 500 North, between 900-1000 East. That section of road has been closed since late March, making it an urgent concern.
“This structure was struck in a single car auto accident on March 20, and it did such damage to the point where we felt it was unsafe for public travel,” said Tolle. “We had to shut down that structure and therefore that mile section of roadway.”
Tolle explained that the structure, which carries the road over a waterway, already had been identified as needing replacement. The county conducted a full inspection of all structures last year, which proved invaluable once this accident occurred.
“We were able to see that this bridge was in pretty poor condition, so doing any kind of repair was just not going to be cost effective,” said Tolle. “It needs replaced. And due to the damage that was sustained during the accident, we need to replace it in an emergent scenario.”
The county expects to spend more than $150,000 to replace the structure, plus the cost of replacing the guardrail damaged in the vehicle accident.
The city’s street repaving projects are scattered throughout the community. A specific timetable for them isn’t set, and some projects may be delayed or cancelled due to weather, emergencies, material and contractor availability, or other unforeseen factors. Still, Moore unveiled a list of projects the city hopes to complete this year.
Alto Road, from Dixon Road to Park Road (contracted)
Alto Road, from Park Road to Webster Street (contracted)
Apperson Way from the Wildcat Creek bridge to Jefferson Street (contracted)
Apperson Way from Gerhardt Street to Smith Road (contracted)
Dixon Road from Markland Avenue to Sycamore Street (contracted)
LaFountain Street, from Washington Street to Ind. 931 (contracted)
Southway Boulevard, from Webster Street to LaFountain Avenue (contracted; tentative)
Webster Street, from Smith Road to Huston Park
Lordeman Street, from McCann Street to Leeds Street
Locke Street, from Lordeman Street to Morgan Street
Berkley Road, from Jefferson Street to Judson Road
Ohio Street from Jefferson Street to Carter Street (partially complete)
McCann Street, from Sycamore Street to Taylor Street’
McCann Street, from Havens Street to Madison Street
Lindsay Street, from Mulberry Street to Taylor Street
Leeds Street, from Sycamore Street to Superior Street
Plate Street, from Markland Avenue to Vaile Avenue
Indiana Street, from Morgan Street to Spraker Street
Ricketts Street, from Wabash Street to Webster Street
Bell Street, from Hoffer Street to Ricketts Street
Walton Way and its associated courts
Tally Ho Drive, from Williams Street to Southway Boulevard
Springwater Street, from Highland Springs Drive to Highland Springs Drive
Hoffer Street, from Washington Street to Webster Street
Superior Street’s west terminus