Bend plans $5 million in summer street preservation work

The Bend City Council on Wednesday night authorized about $5 million for street preservation work in Bend this summer, as well as contracts for other major street projects.

The work includes a $4.7 million agreement with Knife River Corporation that will improve 47 lane miles with grind-and-inlay and overlay treatments. This will include work on some high-use streets, including Third Street between Wilson Avenue and Badger Road, Mount Washington between Shevlin Park Road and Chandler Avenue and some areas of downtown that weren ‘t treated last summer.

Much of this work will occur at night to minimize disruptions to the public, the city announcement stated.

The council also approved a $334,334 contract with Intermountain Slurry Seal, Inc. for slurry seal treatments on about 34 lane miles around the city.

“We strive to address street preservation with one whole corridor at a time, to make it easier on the public and more efficient for the city,” said Bend Streets and Operations Director David Abbas.

“After this two-year budget cycle, it will be a number of years before any major maintenance improvements are needed in the downtown area,” he added.

The city released a map that shows a variety of types of treatments that will occur on Bend roads. The City’s ” Keep Good Roads Good” philosophy means we maintain and preserve streets with the most cost-effective treatment for the road condition — the right treatment at the right time. Treatments include:

· Inlays and Overlays – Old asphalt is ground out and replaced or a new layer of asphalt is paved on top of existing roadway. The process can take a couple of days.

· Slurry – A treatment for low-volume residential streets. One-day closures typically expected.

· Chipseals – Hot oil and rock are applied to the road. Rolling, short term closures expected.

A road’s conditions help the city determine maintenance plans. Arterial and collector streets are highest priority.

Street preservation treatments can include chip seal, slurry seal, grind-and-inlay or overlay treatments, depending on the severity of the road degradation.

The worst roads need full reconstruction. Reconstruction is exponentially more expensive than maintenance, not an efficient use of maintenance funds and more likely to be paid for as part of a larger Capital Improvement Program.

One of the City Council 2017-2019 goals included improving road conditions and building new transportation facilities to help move people and products around Bend efficiently, safely and reliably. One-time funding was reallocated to improve street conditions during this two-year budget cycle.

More info: www.bendoregon.gov/streetpreservation

Councilors also approved a $5.35 million contract with K&E Excavating for the 14th Street reconstruction project, the last project with voter-approved general obligation bonds funding.

They also approved a “progressive design-build” contract for about $500,000 with Knife River for design work on a series of planned improvements along the Empire Avenue corridor, including a new roundabout at Purcell Boulevard and the long-discussed extension of Empire Avenue to 27th Street at Butler Market, with a roundabout at that intersection.