Council pushes forward on $311K West Lincoln resurfacing

Planning for a $311,000 repair of West Lincoln Street is in the works, and the city council voted 4-0 on May 7 to instruct the Monroe Public Works Department to prepare the resurfacing project for bids.

The street is heavily trafficked near Monroe Elementary and is a school bus route for PCM Community Schools. Pot holes from age and with erosion have put the street as a priority for city crews. The street was a topic of discussion at the May 7 city council meeting at city hall.

Lenny Larson is a designer for the Des Moines architectural firm ISG. He addressed the council May 7. Larson’s firm prepared the city’s pavement management plan 1.5 years ago, and outlined some of the high-need areas in Monroe.

“Last fall I would have had a different opinion for you, but over the wintertime (West Lincoln) street has deteriorated quite a bit,” Larson said. “The biggest issues are some blowouts that Jeff (Timmons) has filled with some gravel, and there are some places that get pretty bumpy due to the weight of the vehicle (traffic).”

According to Larson, West Lincoln Street is damaged beyond the point of a normal maintenance project and the designer is recommending a six-inch asphalt overlay from Business 163 to York Street. In the future, the city will address York Street to Highway 14.

The project would remove the existing pavement, excavate six inches and remove that material. Workers will then excavate to a depth of eight inches, and place six inches of rock underneath the pavement.

Earlier this year, the city commissioned a core samples of the roadway to see how deep the existing asphalt went, and workers only found two inches.

“If it was just a regular residential road, you could probably get away with doing four inches of asphalt, but with there being bus traffic that six niches of asphalt will be a better option for you,” Larson said. “Then we always recommend a layer or gravel underneath to stabilize the road and drain a little better into the ditches.”

ISG provided two other options to council members — a $255,198 four-inch asphalt overlay and a $358,000 four-inch concrete paving project. The council opted for the six-inch asphalt at Larson’s recommendation.

The project is paid for as part of the city’s 2018-19 budget. According to city clerk Kim Thomas, 60 percent of the city’s local option sales tax revenue is earmarked for street work. In 2017, the council spent $35,000 from LOST toward streets, and in 2018 the city has not spent any of the $91,000 LOST funds available. With the $109,000 in LOST funds budgeted in 2019, Monroe has a total of $304,000 they could spend from that fund on the West Lincoln Street paving.

The will put the project out for bids and work could begin in August following Monroe Old Settler’s celebration.

Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@monroelegacy.com