City Officials Release List of Streets to be Paved

Now that warmer weather is allowing asphalt to be used for repaving local streets, city offiicials have released a list of some roadways that the Department of Public Works expects to get paved this summer.

Along with the list, DPW officials described at a news conference Thursday the process used to try to respond promptly to pothole complaints. Officials also described the complicated process they use to help determine which streets to pave.

Mayor Richard A. Moccia said that for the past several years, the city has been spending more on paving roads, and Councilman Andrew Conroy, chairman of the Common Council's Public Works Committee, said the council has supported more spending.

City spending on paving went up from roughly $3.5 million in the 2006-2007 fiscal year to four million a year for the next three fiscal years, then $5 million for the present fiscal year, ending June 30. The amount the city spends on paving is actually larger than that, mostly due to grant money from the state and federal governments, said Harold Alvord, city public works director.

Those who call the city Customer Service Center (at 203-854-3200) to ask for pothole repairs speak to a city employee who will type up the request on an electronic form.  That form goes directly to supervisers in the DPW operations division, tasked with filling potholes. Even supervisers who are out of the office in their trucks can pull up the requests on portable computer tablets, said Lisa Burns, manager of the operations division.

Streets to be paved

The list of streets to be paved (given in full at the bottom of this article), includes Cedar Street (from Fairfield Avenue to Summitt Avenue), Fairfield Avenue (from Couch Street to Cedar Street), Park Street, Ponus Avenue (from Bartlett Avenue to Fox Run Road), Seaview Avenue, Strawberry Hill Avenue (from Fitch Street to the Interstate 95 overpass), Union Avenue and Suncrest Road. The city has a total of 255 miles of roadway.

Some of the bumpiest streets to be paved this year are France, Ward and Union streets, said Drew Berndlmaier, senior engineer of construction for the city. On those roads, along with Park Street, the city held off on paving to give Yankee Gas Co. or water utility companies time to work on replacing and fixing pipes and related underground equipment.

Yankee Gas worked during some cold weather to get its Union Street project done in time for the paving season, Alvord said. The underground utility work on Park Street is also done, and the utilities expect to wrap up the France and Ward jobs soon enough to give plenty of time for repaving this year, Berndlmaier said.

The city is also holding off on a deeper paving project for Scribner Avenue, between Flax Hill Road and the overpass at Interstate 95, Alvord said, because the Yankee Gas pipes underneath the roadway might not be able to withstand the pressure and vibrations of normal paving equipment.

Norwalk and Stamford have some of the oldest natural gas pipes in the area, Alvord said, and Yankee Gas is replacing many of them. That section of Scribner should be the subject of a major repaving project, and that will be done after the gas pipes are replaced, Alvord said. For this year, the city will do a less invasive fix, he said, scraping off the top layer of asphalt and replacing it.

Similarly, on Dry Hill Road the city is waiting for Yankee Gas to complete a project before repaving begins. This year, Dry Hill Road will get some "cut and patch" work—where DPW employees in the operations division replace small sections of roadway to make the surface more driveable.

How the city decides which streets to pave

City officials are still in the process of completing the list of Norwalk roads and segments of roads to be paved this year. The process involves a survey conducted by a consultant to identify the worst roadways, and major roads are given a higher priority than streets with low traffic.

Berndlmaier also consults with water and gas companies to see whether the city or the utility can speed up or hold off on a particular street. By coordinating, the city hopes to avoid situations where a street is paved, then a utility soon comes in and tears it up again to replace a pipe or other underground line. So the city and utilities share their planning lists of projects to try to coordinate their efforts.

On George Street last year, the DPW found it needed to coordinate even more with Yankee Gas—a "sniffer" truck looking for gas leaks found one on the street just days before a DPW contractor paved it, Alvord said. Within days of the paving, Yankee Gas crews were ripping up the street to get at the leaking pipe. Now the work of the sniffer trucks is also coordinated with the city.

To further complicate the process, streets that are not in the worst shape but that are near particularly bad roads may get paved as well.

Some streets, particularly those with less traffic, don't tend to get paved often, and when there's a problem on one of them, no matter how small the traffic, the city may decide to pave the street regardless of the consultant's report. About 20 percent of the paving projects are done this way, with top DPW officials reviewing the problems and deciding which ones should be paved in the current year.

Up until several years ago, the city would put out pavement projects to bid after July 1 to coincide with the new fiscal year, Alvord said. By waiting that long, the time to pave was shortened, fewer contractors bid and the city had to compete with other projects the contractors were already doing.

Now the city puts the paving contract out to bid in the winter and paving starts as soon as the weather is warm enough for the asphalt to form a good bond (when the temperatures are at least 50 degrees around the clock). Alvord said the city is getting better prices that way.

When each new fiscal year rolls around, the company that won the bid in the winter is invited to pave more streets and paid from the new budget. If the city dislikes the work that the company does early in the season, it can find another company for the new work, although that hasn't happened so far, Berndlmaier said.

List of streets to be paved this year, under the current fiscal year  budget

(scroll down for a second list of roads to be paved this year under the next fiscal year's budget):

Adams Lane, Ambler Drive,

Beau Street (from Eleanor Lane to June Avenue), Bluff Avenue,

Camp Street, Cedar Street (from Fairfield Avenue to Summitt Avenue), Chipmunk Lane, Colony Place, Cornwall Court, Cottontail Road,

Deane Court, Deane Street,

Avenue E, Eclipse Avenue, Elton Court (from Couch Street to Cedar Street),

Fairfield Avenue, Farm Creak Road, Freedman Drive,

Hayes Avenue, Hendricks Avenue,

Ingleside Avenue,

June Avenue,

Kellogg Street,

Lewis Street,

Lockwood Lane,

Maple Street,

Melbourne Road, Merritt Street, Moodys Lane, Moscariello Place, Mulvoy Street, Murray Street,

Park Street, Pheasant Court, Pheasant Lane, Ponus Avenue (from Bartlett Avenue to Fox Run Road),

Sammis Street, Seaview Avenue, Stevens Street, Strawberry Hill Avenue (from Fitch Street to Interstate 95 overpass), Suncrest Road,

Technology Plaza,

Union Avenue, Upland Court,

Well Avenue, Winthrop Avenue,

Yankee Doodle Court, Yarmouth Road

Partial list of roads to be paved this year under the next fiscal year budget, which starts July 1:

Buda Street,

Cleveland terrace,

Emerald Street,

France Street,

Gold Street,

Grove Street,

Hamilton Avenue,

Pearl Street,

Podmore Street,

Ruby Street,

Silver Street,

Ward Street