By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Bids were awarded by the Hays city commission last week for the 2018 Street Maintenance Program.
The five contractors with the low bids for the five types of work that will be done this year are:
• Circle C Paving and Construction, LLC, Goddard, in the amount of $211,705.40 for seal coat
• Vance Brothers, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri, in the amount of $402,079.66 for micro-surfacing
• Diamond Surface, Inc., Rogers, Minnesota, in the amount of $296,483.88 for diamond grinding
• Morgan Brothers Construction, Inc., LaCrosse, in the amount of $164,058.30 for curb and brick repair
• Sweeney’s Pavement Maintenance, LLC, Hays, in the amount of $35,535 for polypatch
The total of the five contracts is $1,109,862.24 to be funded out of Special Highway. Funding for the chip seal of the sports complex and various park roads will come from Special Parks and Sports Complex Funds respectively.
Going forward, future street work will be prioritized by “keeping the good streets good,” Projects Manager John Braun told city commissioners.
“Back in 2005 we did an in-house assessment. We surveyed the streets, came back and rated them, then put all the information together and came up with a five-year plan,” Braun said.
In 2011 an outside firm using a computer model was hired that “gave a good benchmark of the general condition of the streets in a little bit comparison than what we did in-house. The algorithm didn’t care whether it was a Monday morning or a Friday afternoon or if it was hot or cold when they did the assessment.”
Another street assessment in 2016 provided an indicator of how streets were faring since 2011.
“It showed that the street condition was getting better. However, on an individual street-by-street basis, we were still having to go in and evaluate each street on its own merits,” Braun said, “and we couldn’t necessarily specifically depend on the computer factoring in everything.”
For now, Braun doesn’t see the need to hire another outside evaluation.
“We have a benchmark. I think we have the expertise in-house and the experience that we can go out and pick the streets that are best to maintain,” Braun said. “We have the methodology now where we are keeping the good streets good, instead of letting them get bad and spending a lot of money to rebuild them.”
Braun knows there are still some streets that “just have to get worse and then we are rebuilding them,” but added “we’re really working hard to make sure the streets that are in good condition stay in good condition.”