Infrastructure Board hears report on street overlay issues

There are two different asphalt mixes the city has used on the streets that serve different needs, Roger Beach, operations supervisor, told the Nevada Infrastructure Board during their Tuesday meeting.

During the board's August meeting the members raised concerns about the appearance of the new streets and that there were some areas that appeared to be defective.

Beach said that the BP-1 mixture is used for thicker overlays and uses larger aggregate, the BP-2 mix is used for overlays that are one or two inches thick and uses smaller aggregate and looks smoother.

He said that he looked at various city streets and photographed them, some recently paved and others that had been paved in the past to compare the paving.

Most of the streets used the same size aggregate that was used this year, he told the committee while showing them slides of the different roads he checked. He said that he also checked the paving that APAC used on the state highway projects this summer and they appeared to be the same as what was used in town.

"The streets using the BP-1 mixture are more structurally sound than the streets with the BP-2 mixture," Davin Andrew, APAC representative, told the commission.

"The larger the aggregate, the longer the street will last," Andrew said.

"Asphalt never really gets hard and over time traffic will smooth it out," he said.

"The BP-2 mix looks really nice. We use it on certain commercial parking lots because people walk on it and see it," he said.

Andrew told the committee that there were two small sections of paving that were defective and they were repaired.

He said that this sometimes happens at the end of a load of asphalt and usually it is noticed before it is laid.

Andrews told the committee there is a one-year warranty on the paving and if there is a problem they will fix it.

In addition to the new street construction, Beach told the committee that they slurry sealed 22 blocks of city streets at a cost of $1,250 per block.

"We did six to seven block per day," he said.

The city crews are now working to seal the cracks in city streets to keep water from infiltrating and causing the pavement to break-up.

Beach said that they will be able to seal between 70 and 80 blocks of streets at a cost of $240 per block.

"We plan to continue until the temperature is too cold," he said.

Beach said they are looking at doing about $600,000 in street construction in 2012.

The big project for next year will be North Cedar Street, from Hickory to Atlantic. That project, which is estimated to cost $230,100, will involve milling the eight blocks of street and then replacing the curb and gutters and an asphalt overlay.

Other projects include Ashland, from Ash to Spring; the 500 to 1100 block of North Oak Street and the 200 and 300 block of East Minnesota Street.