City to resurface West Parrish

Street already on work list, but no contract awarded yet

As seen here, sections of West Parrish Street are rough, with splotches of blacktop pavement remaining, but much of it worn away to the older concrete street underneath. - photo by AL HACKLE/Staff

West Parrish Street Web — As seen here, sections of West Parrish Street are rough, with splotches of blacktop pavement remaining, but much of it worn away to the older concrete street underneath. - photo by AL HACKLE/Staff

The city of Statesboro has budgeted to resurface West Parrish Street, from North Main Street to Highway 80 West, this fall.

The project is part of about $750,000 the city is spending on street resurfacing projects this year, in addition to the multifaceted overhaul of Savannah Avenue now being completed.

City Engineer Brad Deal wants to get the word out after callers to the Herald’s “Soundoff” line contrasted the city’s apparent neglect of West Parrish with the recent, very visible investment in Savannah Avenue. As a drive on West Parrish reveals, the part of the street west of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is a rough mess, with splotches of blacktop giving way to the older concrete road underneath. The section between MLK and North Main is cracked, but in better shape.

“I would rather not give away specifics on what we have planned to spend on West Parrish because that sometimes influences the bids, but if you combine the resurfacing of West Parrish with the other city-wide resurfacing project we are doing this year, we are spending a total of approximately $750,000,” Deal said in an email.

The newspaper asked him to put the West Parrish work in the context of the city’s overall spending on resurfacing.

“In addition to that,” Deal wrote, “the paving of Savannah Avenue will cost about $200,000.”

In other words, if Savannah Avenue were included, the city has plans to spend about $950,000 on resurfacing streets this year.

But the paving on Savannah Avenue, where the asphalt surface has been milled away to the old concrete pavement underneath for repaving, is just a portion of the work there, and separate from the regular resurfacing budget.

The $1.85 million Savannah Avenue project, with Southeastern Civil Inc. as general contractor, also includes new water pipelines and relined sewer mains, already completed, plus crosswalks, central islands in the street to slow motor traffic and shield pedestrians, new sidewalks, and a new traffic light system at the Zetterower Avenue intersection.

Concrete streets

Because West Parrish Street also has a concrete base, the Savannah Avenue repaving will give city staff an idea what to expect when they advertise for bids for the West Parrish resurfacing this summer, Deal said.

“We wanted to see how the work on Savannah Avenue goes so that we could learn from that before we put West Parrish out to bid,” he said. “Paving over old concrete roads is challenging, and there are varying opinions out there on what the best way is to do it. We want to spend our money wisely so that when we pave the road, it will hold up for years to come.”

Meanwhile, sections of eight other streets are slated to be resurfaced this summer. If City Council approves a contract to be presented at the first meeting in June, this work will begin in July, Deal said.

Resurfacing projects

The eight additional streets to be resurfaced are Oak Street from Northside Drive to Preetorious Street; Preetorious Street from North Main Street to Oak Street; Chandler Road from Georgia Avenue to Lanier Drive; Lafayette Street from Turner Street to Northside Drive; Thomas Street, also from Turner Street to Northside Drive; Davis Street from Northside Drive to East Parrish Street; East Olliff Street from North Zetterower Avenue to Northside Drive; and Merrywood Drive from Hawthorne Road to Oak Leaf Drive.

Statesboro currently receives Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant funding of about $210,000 a year from the Georgia Department of Transportation. This year, the city is supplementing the state funding with about $540,000 of Special Local Option Sales Tax, or SPLOST, revenue to fund the approximately $750,000 in resurfacing projects.

In a typical year, the city spends about $300,000 from the penny SPLOST on resurfacing, Deal said.

Spot repairs

In addition, a street repair project, which is different from a resurfacing project, is now under contract to Ellis Wood Contracting, on a unit pricing bid capped at $85,000. Areas of pavement on Niver Road, Banks Circle, and Braswell Street will be removed and replaced. An area on Banks Circle is in especially bad shape and in need of attention, Deal said.

Although called major repairs because they were more than the city was prepared to do on its own, these are limited to “spot areas” that “do not require repaving of the complete road,” according to a memo in the May 3 City Council agenda packets.

Staff members removed some other spot repairs from the contract to stay within the $85,000 budget. If all the repairs on the original list were done, Ellis Wood’s bid, the lower of the two received, would have resulted in a $97,660 total.

Spot repairs on Lanier Drive were pulled, but the city will make some repairs there with its pavement repair crew, Deal said.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.