DOT will fix Greenwood Main Street this spring

The city of Greenwood will get some reprieve this spring from failing Main Street asphalt, but what method will be used to fix the problem is yet uncertain. Department of Transportation officials did tell the city last week that it will do something in the next few months, based on how much repair money is available.

The city Council met with two DOT representatives and Clark County Highway Commissioner Brian Duell on Feb. 26 to discuss what can be done to repair failing areas of the street before the DOT does an entire street resurfacing project in 2025. The street was completely rebuilt in the summer of 2006, but major holes have developed over most of the length of the street, mainly along the seam between the main traffic lanes and the parking lanes. Clark County, with funding from the DOT’s normal annual maintenance budget, did fill the deteriorated areas last spring, but those patches have not lasted and the city is again dealing with large holes.

Mayor Jim Schecklman and the Council in recent months sent a letter to the DOT, as well as local elected representatives, when it learned that no major project to fix the street is planned for five years. With the county’s patches not solving the problem, Schecklman said the city decided to ask for a fix.

“We realized, ‘Holy cow, that’s just not gonna last,” he said of last year’s temporary patch job. “We’re looking for something to last for four years.”

Duell said the county tried to fix the issue last year with patch material, but it did not stay in place for long.

“Each year we get different types of patch material,” Duell said. “The patch that was used here … it was bad patch material, is what it was. You never really know if it’s good or bad until you throw it in the hole.”

When the first attempt at what Duell described as a “throw and go” patch job did not last, county crews returned to refill the holes and press the patch in with a heavy roller. That hasn’t lasted either, as Duell said the bad fill material that was still in the holes is inadequate.

“Some of that bad patch did stick in there and that’s probably what’s failing,” he said.

DOT Operations Supervisor Jeffrey Kern said the DOT is now in the process of determining the best option to provide a repair that will get the city through the next few years. One possibility is milling the bad sections/strips and then repaving. Another is to fill the bad spots with a rubberized “mastic” patch that goes in as a hot mix and dries hard.

“We’re kind of going through that right now,” Kern said of the assessment of options.

Responding to Schecklman’s direct question on the DOT’s commitment to fix the problem, Kern said the state will “do something” after winter ends.

“You’re talking to the right people here right now,” he said. “It’s just a matter of what method will be done. It’s not going to be a cold patch material.”

The DOT is responsible for Greenwood’s Main Street because it is part of State Highway 73. The DOT contracts with the county each year to take care of maintenance on all of the state roads in the county. Duell said the county gets one pot of money for all the state highway miles, and has to spread it out where it’s needed. There are other problem spots — such as Highway 98 between Loyal and Spencer — that need dollars, too.

“Our funding is somewhat uncertain,” Duell said. “We’ll certainly make it a priority to try to bring (Greenwood’s Main Street) forward.”

Because the Main Street reconstruction job was done only 14 years ago, the DOT did not even have it in its near-future plans for another resurfacing project. When the asphalt began failing early, however, the DOT added the .9-mile portion of Main Street to its 2025 plans to rebuild Highway 73 from the north end of Greenwood north to Highway 29. That work is set for 2025, although there is a slight chance it could be moved up a year if funding becomes available.

A situation that could complicate a temporary fix is the exact location of the worst asphalt. The state is responsible for the center 22 feet of the road, while the parking lanes are the city’s. If the problems are found to be outside the center 22 feet, Duell asked the city if it would be willing to spend money for the repairs.

“I think it’s the joint right on the line,” Duell said.

“I think we would have to know what the amount of money that would be estimated first,” Schecklman said.

The city has money in its 2020 budget for other street work in the city, and could possibly divert some of it to fix Main Street.

“We have money that we’re allocating for other paving projects,” the mayor said. “There are other side streets that might have to wait a year if it comes down to that.”