Project to enhance 12 Chandler streets
More than 10 streets in Chandler will be repaved in the next few months, according to City Manager Jason Orr, making this the first project of this magnitude regarding the city’s roads.
In the city council meeting on Sep. 12, the council voted to accept the lowest bid of $1.6 million submitted by T.J. Campbell Construction. The company has three months to complete the project, though Orr said the contractor will set the exact dates for the work.
Orr said they don’t expect any issues while the work is underway.
“It’s not like a total reconstruction where it’s going to be closed for a month. It’s just repaving. A block should be down for about four or five hours or up to a day,” Orr said. “It shouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience.”
The areas set to be repaved are: Iowa Street, First Street from Phillips 66 east toward First Baptist Church, Keith Duncan Drive, Third Street from Manvel to Blaine Avenue, 15th Place, East 17th Street, Tilghman Drive, Timberlake Drive from Pin Oak Drive to almost Cross Timber Drive, Pin Oak Drive, Dewey Avenue from First Street to Sixth Street, the crosswalks on the west side of Manvel Avenue at 10th and Ninth streets, South Dewey Street by 11th Street and Bennett Boulevard from Eighth Street to 10th Street.
Orr said the city is also working on plans to resurface Thunderbird Drive to Hiland using Industrial Access grant money.
Mayor Kent McVey said this is intended to be an ongoing project. He asked city council members to go into their wards and determine conditions and recommend the streets in most need of repair.
“We evaluated streets and put them on a grading scale so we could know what needed work now and plan for the future,” McVey said. “What we did was try to identify some of the worst streets in the city and fairly distribute the work. We tried to do as much as we could in the first round.”
Residents on some of the affected streets welcomed the news.
Britton Hinkle, who lives on Dewey Street, said that while he’s happy about the street being repaved, he worries that more people will speed down the road afterward.
“Right now, it’s almost like having speed bumps, so people don’t drive as fast,” he said.
Hinkle also mentioned it would be nice if the city fixed the brick road on Eighth Street, a sentiment echoed by other nearby residents.
City Manager Orr said that the brick section of Eighth Street was initially set to be part of the first round of improvements. It was dropped because it requires a complete reconstruction rather than a simple overlay like the other streets.
Mayor McVey added that the historical significance of the street makes reconstruction a bit more controversial.