Cassville roadway construction resumes with new plan of action
September 4, 2019
Vinnie Roberts
Earlier this summer, the City of Cassville began work on repaving several key roadways in town that had fallen into disrepair. Now, at the end of the summer, the city faced some speed bumps that have caused them to reassess their previous plans and move forward with a new plan of attack.
The original plan started with a budget of $91,000, and according to public works director David Brock, the city has spent $68,952 so far. With that money, the city’s contractor, Hutchens Construction, has been able to resurface Blackberry Court, Townsend Street and 9th Street.
Additionally, the city planned to resurface Tudor Street as well as the entrance to the city park, City Park Road. Unfortunately, legal and budgetary concerns led to the city to put those streets on hold for now.
According to Brock, City Park Road is a privately-owned road the city doesn’t have the legal right to perform maintenance on. Previously, the city attorney was pursuing an easement to allow Hutchens Construction, under direction of the city, to resurface the road.
“Our attorney was negotiating for an easement so that we have the legal right to maintain it,” said Brock. “It’s kind of public use, but there isn’t an underlying dedication for city maintenance. That no longer seems promising for this construction season.”
Brock went on to explain that the problem with the construction efforts on Tudor came from budgetary concerns.
“On Tudor, we were going to do a cost-share with Flat Creek Special Road District,” explained Brock. “There must have been a math error when we budgeted for it, because we were way short of being able to make our share.”
Brock went on to explain that construction would continue with the budget instead being used to pave two additional streets.
“We’re going to drop those and add two different streets that we had tentatively scheduled for next year,” said Brock.
According to Brock, those streets include: Blackjack Street, a road located within the Wildwood subdivision of the city, and Kenny Drive, located just off of Main Street near the local Pizza Hut.
Cassville’s Public Works Department originally budgeted $10,000 for repairs to City Park Road and $16,500 for repairs to Tudor Street. With construction now changing gears to the other streets, the department is projecting a decrease in costs of approximately $11,000, bringing the projected total expenditure for the city’s road projects to $78,981.
According to Brock, the savings from this change in direction will be rolled over into the budget for road work in 2020.
This spending decrease stems from the nature of the maintenance needed on these two new roads differing from what was planned for Tudor and City Park Road’s entrance.
Blackjack and Kenny Drive will receive an overlay of Onyx, a mastic surface coating which repairs minor damage and acts as a preventative measure against further wear and tear.
“The Onyx isn’t a structural fix,” explained Brock. “It helps with alligator cracking and oxidation and places where the surface is coming loose. It’s more of a preventative maintenance thing.”
Brock went on to explain that the department’s ideal budget would allow for the reconstruction and preventative maintenance to be even in terms of focus. Due to the current condition of some of Cassville’s roadways, the budget needs to have a much larger focus on restorative maintenance.
“Ideally, we’d be spending as much on preventative maintenance as you are on restoration, but the amount of restoration needed was just too big,” Brock explained.
Construction on the last batch of roadways concluded in July and no further construction has been completed at this time.
The Public Works Department has notified the city’s contractor of the change in direction and, according to Brock, Hutchens will resume construction at their next earliest convenience.
“Something we try to do to keep our costs down is give our contractors a little leeway in scheduling,” explained Brock. “They are good if we’re in a time crunch, but if we let them schedule when their opportunity is best, it helps us get low bids.”
Though the primary phases of construction on Blackberry Court, Townsend and 9th Street has been completed, there is some further maintenance planned that will also be worked into the construction schedule.
“There is some work left to do on 9th Street,” Brock said. “We milled out and repaved the driving lanes, but we want to do a seal coat on some of the parking and space out to the curb. That’s the same type of surface treatment that we’re doing on a lot of the other streets.”
Brock went on to explain that his department will soon be conducting a reassessment of the road conditions across the town as a means to create a detailed plan of action for the future.
“In my first full year, one of our staff had gone out and rated all of our roadways on a scale of one to ten. I took that and came up with a plan to try and take care of the worst of the worst within three years. We’ve kept up with it pretty well,” said Brock. “The focus of that first plan was to get the worst of the worst. Next year, we’ll go back and try to do that process again. We’ll come up with a more detailed way to do that. One of the things that made the original plan so hard was that it rated the entire street together.”
Brock explained that while this plan worked on a theoretical level, a more effective level of success could be achieved with a more detailed plan of action.
“In some cases, block-by-block, things are worse on one part than they are in another. In some other cases, the streets aren’t made of the same kind of material all the way through.
“We’re going to go back and rate them block-by-block so we can better see what needs to be done.”
Brock continued, explaining that the ideas generated by this new method of data collection will help define his department’s road construction plans for the near future.
“We’re going to finish everything from the previous three year plan in 2020, and the hope is that we’ll start on the new stuff in 2021,” Brock continued.
While the exact date that construction will resume is not known, it is expected to begin soon and will be dictated by the availability of the city’s contractor.
For any further questions about road repairs or the public works department, contact Cassville City Hall at (417) 847-4441.
Vinnie Roberts
Earlier this summer, the City of Cassville began work on repaving several key roadways in town that had fallen into disrepair. Now, at the end of the summer, the city faced some speed bumps that have caused them to reassess their previous plans and move forward with a new plan of attack.
The original plan started with a budget of $91,000, and according to public works director David Brock, the city has spent $68,952 so far. With that money, the city’s contractor, Hutchens Construction, has been able to resurface Blackberry Court, Townsend Street and 9th Street.
Additionally, the city planned to resurface Tudor Street as well as the entrance to the city park, City Park Road. Unfortunately, legal and budgetary concerns led to the city to put those streets on hold for now.
According to Brock, City Park Road is a privately-owned road the city doesn’t have the legal right to perform maintenance on. Previously, the city attorney was pursuing an easement to allow Hutchens Construction, under direction of the city, to resurface the road.
“Our attorney was negotiating for an easement so that we have the legal right to maintain it,” said Brock. “It’s kind of public use, but there isn’t an underlying dedication for city maintenance. That no longer seems promising for this construction season.”
Brock went on to explain that the problem with the construction efforts on Tudor came from budgetary concerns.
“On Tudor, we were going to do a cost-share with Flat Creek Special Road District,” explained Brock. “There must have been a math error when we budgeted for it, because we were way short of being able to make our share.”
Brock went on to explain that construction would continue with the budget instead being used to pave two additional streets.
“We’re going to drop those and add two different streets that we had tentatively scheduled for next year,” said Brock.
According to Brock, those streets include: Blackjack Street, a road located within the Wildwood subdivision of the city, and Kenny Drive, located just off of Main Street near the local Pizza Hut.
Cassville’s Public Works Department originally budgeted $10,000 for repairs to City Park Road and $16,500 for repairs to Tudor Street. With construction now changing gears to the other streets, the department is projecting a decrease in costs of approximately $11,000, bringing the projected total expenditure for the city’s road projects to $78,981.
According to Brock, the savings from this change in direction will be rolled over into the budget for road work in 2020.
This spending decrease stems from the nature of the maintenance needed on these two new roads differing from what was planned for Tudor and City Park Road’s entrance.
Blackjack and Kenny Drive will receive an overlay of Onyx, a mastic surface coating which repairs minor damage and acts as a preventative measure against further wear and tear.
“The Onyx isn’t a structural fix,” explained Brock. “It helps with alligator cracking and oxidation and places where the surface is coming loose. It’s more of a preventative maintenance thing.”
Brock went on to explain that the department’s ideal budget would allow for the reconstruction and preventative maintenance to be even in terms of focus. Due to the current condition of some of Cassville’s roadways, the budget needs to have a much larger focus on restorative maintenance.
“Ideally, we’d be spending as much on preventative maintenance as you are on restoration, but the amount of restoration needed was just too big,” Brock explained.
Construction on the last batch of roadways concluded in July and no further construction has been completed at this time.
The Public Works Department has notified the city’s contractor of the change in direction and, according to Brock, Hutchens will resume construction at their next earliest convenience.
“Something we try to do to keep our costs down is give our contractors a little leeway in scheduling,” explained Brock. “They are good if we’re in a time crunch, but if we let them schedule when their opportunity is best, it helps us get low bids.”
Though the primary phases of construction on Blackberry Court, Townsend and 9th Street has been completed, there is some further maintenance planned that will also be worked into the construction schedule.
“There is some work left to do on 9th Street,” Brock said. “We milled out and repaved the driving lanes, but we want to do a seal coat on some of the parking and space out to the curb. That’s the same type of surface treatment that we’re doing on a lot of the other streets.”
Brock went on to explain that his department will soon be conducting a reassessment of the road conditions across the town as a means to create a detailed plan of action for the future.
“In my first full year, one of our staff had gone out and rated all of our roadways on a scale of one to ten. I took that and came up with a plan to try and take care of the worst of the worst within three years. We’ve kept up with it pretty well,” said Brock. “The focus of that first plan was to get the worst of the worst. Next year, we’ll go back and try to do that process again. We’ll come up with a more detailed way to do that. One of the things that made the original plan so hard was that it rated the entire street together.”
Brock explained that while this plan worked on a theoretical level, a more effective level of success could be achieved with a more detailed plan of action.
“In some cases, block-by-block, things are worse on one part than they are in another. In some other cases, the streets aren’t made of the same kind of material all the way through.
“We’re going to go back and rate them block-by-block so we can better see what needs to be done.”
Brock continued, explaining that the ideas generated by this new method of data collection will help define his department’s road construction plans for the near future.
“We’re going to finish everything from the previous three year plan in 2020, and the hope is that we’ll start on the new stuff in 2021,” Brock continued.
While the exact date that construction will resume is not known, it is expected to begin soon and will be dictated by the availability of the city’s contractor.
For any further questions about road repairs or the public works department, contact Cassville City Hall at (417) 847-4441.