Street Rebuild: Thornton Major construction coming in 2019
After listening to citizen feedback that major street repairs were needed in Leavenworth, the City Commission decided to invest in a street rebuild for Thornton Street. A design contract, with the intent to rebuild Thornton Street from 10th Avenue to Fifth Street was approved by the City Commission in June 2018. Affinis Corporation won the bid for a design contract. In December, Affinis briefed the City Commission on some possible options for the new street design. The potentially $4 million Thornton Street project three times the City’s annual street repair budget of about $1.3 million a year. To pay for the project, the City will be selling municipal bonds. The City Commission is expected to approve a bid for the general contract sometime in April 2019. The construction portion of the project will likely take two seasons and last into 2020. The design includes stripping the road surface down to the road bed, grading and smoothing the ground in some areas, adding geogrid fabric for stabilization, installing a new roadbed, new asphalt, new curbs and gutters, new storm drainage and new sidewalks. There will also be a new traffic signal system installed at Second Avenue and Thornton, near Anthony Elementary School. 10th Avenue will remain open, but traffic leading to 10th on Thornton Street will be closed.
Construction of Thornton Street from 10th Avenue to Fifth Street will take place in 2019-2020. The project is an entire street rebuild and is estimated to cost around $4 million. The City is using bonds to fund the project. The construction will require complete road closure for through traffic. Because of this, the City will work with contractors to complete the project in phases. Construction is always weather dependent. A rainy season or early fall could delay the project. If all goes according to schedule, it would be completed sometime in the fall of 2020.
Estimated Costs of Road Construction Why not just rebuild every road? The cost of construction would far exceed our budget. Here’s a breakdown of costs.
Type of Construction
Distance
Cost Estimate
New 4-lane highway
1 centerline mile
$3 million-$5 million
New 2-lane undivided road
1 centerline mile
$1.25 million
Mill and overlay
300 foot block
$12,000
Granite Seal
300 foot block
$2,200
Crack seal streets per block
300 foot block
$300-$500
Pothole repairs, material only
$125 per location
Road rebuilds mean tearing out an entire section of road including the roadbed and replacing it. In 2014, contractors working for the City did part of a rebuild at the intersecton of Second Avenue and Limit Street.
City Commission approves list of roads to receive granite seal treatment in 2019 Beginning this summer, construction crews will begin a repair process throughout City streets known as granite seal. The procedure is cheaper than mill and overlay, which involves scraping away part of the damaged street and overlaying with new material. Each summer the City picks a set of roads throughout the community to receive
the granite seal treatment. The process involves: - Pouring an emulsion and adding loose granite material over the street. - Within 4 to 8 hours, crews will sweep over the street to remove some of the loose material. - In 72 hours, crews will sweep it again to pick up additional loose material.
3
-Third sweep During this procedure, it is possible that there will be loose gravel on City streets. Caution is advised, as well as following posted speed limits. See the City’s website, www.lvks.org, for areas that will undergo granite seal repair.
