With the official start of spring just three weeks away, road paving and construction season is about to begin in Seymour.
Local roads have suffered from the freezing and thawing conditions of winter, resulting in potholes and deteriorating road conditions.
The Seymour Department of Public Works filled more than 5,000 potholes last year, Mayor Matt Nicholson said.
This year, the city again is looking to leverage around $1 million from the state’s Community Crossings Matching Grant fund to complete $2 million worth of roadwork all over the city.
The city’s $1 million matching portion is coming from the Seymour Redevelopment Commission, which utilizes revenue generated from tax increment finance, or TIF, districts. Those districts capture incremental increases in property taxes from industries within the districts. That money is then available to make improvements in TIF districts and adjacent and connecting areas.
The CCMG has not been awarded yet for 2020, but city engineer Bernie Hauersperger of FPBH Inc. said he is expecting the announcement to come any day. In anticipation of the funding, the board of public works and safety approved to advertise for bids for road repaving projects during a meeting Thursday.
Seymour is looking to overlay portions of 40 city streets this year totaling 7 miles. In 2018, the city had 103.299 miles of streets, according to the Indiana Department of Transportation’s roadway inventory.
The most costly investments will be the stretch of Second Street from Indianapolis Avenue east to where it dead ends, Catalpa Drive from Schleter Road south to the dead end and Allegretti Avenue from Meadowlark Place north to the dead end. Those three projects are estimated to cost more than $800,000 combined.
Both Catalpa and Allegretti will require more than just repaving and will be full-depth replacement projects, adding new storm drain inlets on Catalpa to improve drainage and raising the elevation of Allegretti to help with flooding.
The work is slated to begin by the end of March or early April and wrap up in November, Hauersperger said.
The condition of Seymour’s streets is at an all-time high thanks to the CCMG program, which started in 2016, and the city’s asset management plan put into place in 2014 by former city engineer Nathan Frey.
Every two years, the city evaluates and scores each segment of road within city limits. That score helps determine which treatment is best to maintain the road.
“We have a report that was done two years ago that rates every street,” Hauersperger said. “Each road gets a designation from 1 to 9 with 1 being the worst. What we do is take that rating and we put the worst roads first.”
But other factors can contribute to a street moving up on the list, including volume, which can contribute to a faster rate of deterioration, Hauersperger said.
All roads will be re-evaluated this year, he added.
Since 2016, Seymour has received more than $3.7 million from the state from the CCMG program and has invested more than $7 million total in road maintenance. Before that time, the city was only putting about $150,000 to $200,000 into road repairs annually.
List of Seymour streets scheduled to be repaved in 2020
Second Street from Indianapolis Avenue east to the dead end
Allegretti Avenue, full-depth replacement from Meadowlark Place north to the dead end
Catalpa Drive, full-depth replacement from Schleter Road south to the dead end
Community Drive from Second to Sixth streets
Chestnut Street from North Park to Laurel streets
Seventh Street from Chestnut Street east to the railroad
Eighth Street from Broadway to Blish streets
Arrowhead Drive from New Ford Road north to the dead end
Bennett Street from O’Brien Street west to the dead end
Buckeye Street from Tipton to Brown streets
Cottage Circle
Dunbar Drive from Dutchmans Lane to Burkart Boulevard
Emerson Avenue from Seventh to Eighth streets
G Avenue from the Humane Society to the SPD fire training facility
Hampton Court from Coventry Drive east to the dead end
Holly Drive
Northbound Indianapolis Avenue from Seventh to Ninth streets and from Second Street south to the dead end
Ewing Street from Second Street south to the dead end
Kasting Road from Wendemere Drive to McDonald Street
Laurel Street from Kasting Road to the railroad
Lynn Street from McDonald to Jackson streets
Maple Street from Oak Street south to the dead end
Meadowbrook Drive from Tipton Street south to city limits
Outlet Drive from Tanger Boulevard to the entry area to Tipton Street
Park Street from Eighth to Ninth streets
Pershing Street from Eighth to Ninth streets
Schepman Avenue from Tipton to State Street and from State Street to Snyder Avenue
South Street from Chestnut Street to the railroad
South Drive in Sunset Parkway from West to East drives
Greenway Court from South Drive north to the dead end
East Drive from North to South drives
North Drive from West to East drives
Rose Mary Court from North Drive south to the dead end
Meadow Court from North Drive south to the dead end
Sweetbrier Court from West Drive west to the dead end
Thorndike Court from South Drive north to the dead end
West Drive from North to South drives
Twin Circle Drive from 10th Street east to the dead end
Vine Street from Third Street south to the dead end
Western Parkway from New Ford Road to Lakeview Drive