The city has been taking a more aggressive approach when it
comes to road maintenance. By this we
have undertaken a dedicated effort to seal coat all of the paved roads that would benefit from a seal coat. Seal coating starts with applying a thin
layer of asphalt/oil mixture over the bituminous to coat the surface of the
pavement. The thin layer of rock is then
applied which is further covered by a fog seal.
The fog seal coats the rock keeping it in place.
Not all roadways will benefit from a seal coating as some
have fallen into disrepair but roads that can benefit are being taken care of, generally
the oldest first. This goal however has
been modified by trying to do an area or neighborhood all at once. This would mean some roadways that are
younger will be seal coated in accomplishing that goal. Once roadways have been seal coated it is
hoped that a schedule of 7 to 10 years to re-sealcoat can be maintained.
We have been working with Crow Wing County cooperatively for
the past few years. They put together
the bids, advertise, and do the contract administration. This cooperative effort is accomplished with
other jurisdictions within the county to have competitive bids for the benefit
of all involved.
For 2017 what was proposed was Humming Bear Lane,
Bittersweet Circle, Autumn Lane, Harvest Court, Harvest Road, Green Scene
Drive, Snowman Circle, and a portion of Summer Drive. After further review it was felt that we had
a few roadways in the neighborhood that also should be done. These were not specially budgeted for or
included in the project scope for 2017 but they did make sense to accomplish
this year. These include Four Seasons
Place, the paved portion of Raccoon Lane and the other portion of Summer Drive.
This increased the budgeted amount by an estimate of $17,300 making the total
estimated cost $78,800. With funds
available for this added expense the decision was made to include these
additional streets in the 2017 seal coat project.
Crow Wing County is looking to seek bids in the near future
for seal coating to be done throughout the county. The sealcoating schedule has yet to be
determined as it will to some extent be up to the successful bidder but we will
see seal coating again occur in Breezy Point this summer.
