Warm weather has returned, signaling the start of paving season. While Mayor John Lombardi III continues to wait for a milling and paving project list from his highway department, he has named several of his priority road projects.
Aldermen have been advocating for road projects in meetings with the mayor, and have questioned why requests for bids have not been developed.
Council president Kathryn Fogle, 4th Ward alderman, said there is a sense of urgency due to the Erie Canal Bicentennial Celebration.
Lombardi said in an interview Tuesday that the city has road construction companies under contract, so RFPs are not required.
“We didn’t need them, but he sent them out already,” Lombardi said of Clayton Dimmick, director of Highways, Parks and Water, seeking RFPs. Lombardi said he didn’t know what road work was included in the RFPs. Dimmick did not respond to requests for comment on road work priorities and a list of milling and paving projects.
Lombardi said the highway department was filling potholes Tuesday during the warm weather and that he should have a milling and paving list this week from Dimmick.
“He’s going to report back to me on Friday,” Lombardi said. “They were patching West Avenue this morning.”
Lombardi said every street in the city needs attention. Pressed for specifics, the mayor said that working on Transit Street from West Genesee Street to Niagara Street is a priority.
“I want to see it all milled out,” Lombardi said. “Milling should begin the next few days.”
The intersection of Transit and Main has been a notorious moonscape of potholes that cause some cars to stop out of caution before each deep rut.
The mayor said other top road work projects include Chestnut Street behind the library, and Locust Street by the high school, between Lincoln and Coolidge avenues.
Last week, a resolution for Highway Rehabilitation Corporation to repair Davison Road using hot in-place mill recycling was approved by the city council. Mullane had introduced the resolution and Margaret Lupo, 5th Ward alderman was vocal in her support since Davison Road has been a source of complaints in her district.
“This is a good trial of whether this will hold up on our streets,” Lupo said of Highway Rehabilitation’s process. “Davison Road is a busy street. We’re just waiting now to get an estimate.”
Lombardi seemed less supportive when he commented after the vote.
“I think we need to investigate into the process more,” he said of Highway Rehabilitation’s hot in-place mill recycling method of creating a base on which roads are paved. Lombardi said he did not have other streets in mind as better candidates for the work.
John Craig, 1st Ward alderman, agrees that Chestnut Street requires roadwork since it supports some of downtown’s attractions.
“Cornerstone and Big Ditch get big trucks for deliveries,” Craig said of Chestnut. “It should be a priority that gets fixed because it’s affecting businesses.”
Other priorities for Craig include Market Street paving from Main Street to the Matt Murphy Bridge.
“I was hoping that Market could get addressed because of the 200th anniversary of the canal and a lot of people will be driving it,” he said. “But I’ve also heard that there are structural issues at Wide Waters and the country club. It’s more of an engineering and piping issue to handle rain water. You can’t just pave the road and hope it will be fixed. You gotta take care of the infrastructure. I know they’ve been looking at that for a while. It’s not a good use of taxpayer dollars to do that work when there are other issues.”
“Mill Street is a concern from a lot of residents because it gets a lot of traffic from Vandemark employees and heavy truck traffic,” Craig said of damage there. “That became a problem because of the weight bearing.”
Anita Mullane, 2nd Ward Alderman, and Maggie Lupo, 5th Ward Alderman, have been advocating for milling and paving for Davison Road from East Avenue to
Kevin Kirchberger, alderman at large, said he has been requesting road work for Gooding Street since last year. He also recommends that Beattie Avenue and East High Street get attention, as well as Beattie Avenue, and Willow Street from Cottage to Locust.
Fogle said the intersection of Weld Street and Willow Street has flooding problems.
“We need work done by the armory,” she added.
Mark Devine, 3rd Ward alderman, does not have an answering machine and did not respond to an email request for comment on his district’s streets.