City’s streets, bridges prioritized for repairs

With the exception of Fulton City Commissioners Elaine Forrester and Darcy Linn, no other citizens were present for Monday night’s Municipal Aid Road Fund public hearing, however City Manager Mike Gunn and Public Works Director Bubba Nelms prepared a proposed plan of action regarding repair and paving needs for the city’s streets.

“We are in the process of getting paving costs this year. We are also requesting pricing on milling of the streets. Milling usually adds about half the cost to the paving. Many of our streets that were concrete have just had the asphalt added to them, which causes the water in the storm gutters or curbings not to flow adequately and often penetrate the asphalt and freeze in the winter. That causes the asphalt to crack and break up. We will be addressing that going forward,” Gunn stated in a memo to all city employees.

Other comparisons to be made will be those aligning the expense of hot tar sealing with a private company versus purchasing equipment to perform the task.

Nelms said at one time, the idea had surfaced to share the cost of equipment with Fulton County, Hickman County, the cities of Hickman and Clinton, however no action had ever been taken regarding the costly equipment.

Nelms said he had confirmed a price of $83 per ton on paving, with truck capacity to hold 25 tons.

Commissioner Linn asked how much of an area of street surface could be covered with a ton of blacktop.

Nelms said there is a formula to use to calculate the square footage, and Gunn researched the question, ultimately locating the information which stated 314 square feet of street surface could be covered with one ton of black top.

Locations determined by Gunn and Nelms in need of immediate attention included bridges along the creek at Second, Bankers Place and Commercial Avenue need to be capped; North College Street from Fourth to Seventh Street; Mears Street from Second Street to Fourth Street is in need of paving, with consideration also given for milling.

Other areas requiring attention included Pearl Street from State Line to Second Street. resulting in completion of all of Pearl Street; Sunset from Third Street to Second Street, completing all of Sunset; Peachtree to the Cul-de-Sac; Arch Street from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to Cleveland; Vine Street at Court Drive, to include each of the turn in approaches from Vine which need to be patched; and Vine Street at Oak Hill Court, the entrance to Oak Hill Court requiring patching.