One block of Southwest 12th Avenue has smooth new pavement, as seen on Sunday evening, Oct. 20, 2024.
For many years, a section of 12th Avenue in West Albany was notorious for its plentitude of potholes. On Sunday I discovered that the City of Albany did something about it.
The poor condition of many local streets is the reason the City of Albany is now preparing to impose a new street maintenance fee. Once the council agrees on the rates, the fee will be added to the monthly bills for water and other services.
Usually, the city street crew is limited to filling potholes one by one. So when I rode the bike up 12th Avenue west of Elm Street on Sunday night, I wondered how come there was a whole block of new pavement covering both driving lanes of the street.
Robb Romeo, transportation manager in Albany Public Works, told me the story:
“This was one of the areas City street maintenance staff paved this summer with our new paver. It was paved in late August. This particular area was paved because we spent an abundance of time on this section pothole patching the previous winter. We were able to borrow a skid steer from another work group and rented an attachment to grind 1.5 inches of asphalt on the sides of the street to allow us to tie in the new asphalt patch. This street really needs full reconstruction, but this is an inexpensive way to give the road a better ride over the worst parts until we can make the necessary improvements. For this patch on 12th Ave we used around 47 tons of asphalt, which is around $3,000 of material plus three City staff and three temporary summer help for several days’ work.”
This was on the block of 12th Avenue between Elm and Willetta streets.
Drivers on 12th no doubt appreciate the improvement. In the summers to come, let’s hope many other local streets get that treatment too. (hh)
More than patches: Bad pavement gets a fix
One block of Southwest 12th Avenue has smooth new pavement, as seen on Sunday evening, Oct. 20, 2024.
For many years, a section of 12th Avenue in West Albany was notorious for its plentitude of potholes. On Sunday I discovered that the City of Albany did something about it.
The poor condition of many local streets is the reason the City of Albany is now preparing to impose a new street maintenance fee. Once the council agrees on the rates, the fee will be added to the monthly bills for water and other services.
Usually, the city street crew is limited to filling potholes one by one. So when I rode the bike up 12th Avenue west of Elm Street on Sunday night, I wondered how come there was a whole block of new pavement covering both driving lanes of the street.
Robb Romeo, transportation manager in Albany Public Works, told me the story:
“This was one of the areas City street maintenance staff paved this summer with our new paver. It was paved in late August. This particular area was paved because we spent an abundance of time on this section pothole patching the previous winter. We were able to borrow a skid steer from another work group and rented an attachment to grind 1.5 inches of asphalt on the sides of the street to allow us to tie in the new asphalt patch. This street really needs full reconstruction, but this is an inexpensive way to give the road a better ride over the worst parts until we can make the necessary improvements. For this patch on 12th Ave we used around 47 tons of asphalt, which is around $3,000 of material plus three City staff and three temporary summer help for several days’ work.”
This was on the block of 12th Avenue between Elm and Willetta streets.
Drivers on 12th no doubt appreciate the improvement. In the summers to come, let’s hope many other local streets get that treatment too. (hh)
Tags: 12th avenue, asphalt, pavement, potholes, street fee