Potholes and paving projects reviewed

Saving roads before they deteriorate beyond repair and must be rebuilt is one of the major goals of the Ruidoso Street Department in choosing annual projects, Ruidoso Public Works Director J. R. Baumann told village councilors Tuesday.

Councilors approved participation in two cost-sharing programs with the state Department of Transportation. The municipal arterial program must be connected to a state highway and village officials chose the main streets within Camelot Subdivision, which are Crown Drive, Excalibur Road, Guinevere Avenue and Camelot Drive that connect to U.S.70.

"How do we decide which to do next?" he said. "Generally, we look at road condition. If it is moderate, now is the time to put a coat on to save it. If we wait, the cost could be five times as much. The other thing we look at is if all the utilities are in the ground already (to avoid future pavement cuts) and where we get the most bang for the buck."

The Camelot project covers six miles, but Baumann only can do half with the first allocation. He will try for the other half in the next round.

"The roadways are currently in bad disrepair due to many utility cuts and patching throughout the years," Baumann wrote in his memorandum to councilors. "The village plans to use its in-house street department to overlay portions of the project. When completed, the village also will use in-house crew to shoot oil for the chip seal portion (oil and rock mixture) and crews will spread the rock with out in-house spreader. Finally, the crew will fog seal the entire project. Upon completion, the roadway will be a complete 22 foot wide roadway with improved shoulders for the safety of the traveling public."

The cost to the village will be $84,583.79, representing 25 percent of the total project cost of $338,335.16, with the state picking up 75 percent.

The second category called a cooperative program is divided into two sections of town and the village can work on any targeted roads, Baumann said. The application approved focuses on roads within the Town & Country and Cree Meadows Heights subdivisions. The village's portion will be $115,781.

The two projects also tied into approval by the council to purchase a new bituminous asphalt distributor truck for $163,320.

"This puts the last tool in our tool box for the road department to maintain our paving program and chip sealing program," Baumann said. "Also with this truck, we can use the asphalt waste (to surface) roads that kind of look like paved roads, but are not, but they are black and people like them and its inexpensive for us to do that. We'll be able to get back into that program. We'll no longer have to (bid out) our chip seal programs. With the purchase of our asphalt paver last year, this is the final tool. We have new rollers. With this oil truck, we are ready to rock and roll."

The contract for the truck was awarded to Sierra Machinery, the sole bidder meeting specifications out of 14 companies that inquired, he said.

"This will allow us to fog seal any of the roads in town," Baumann said. "Most of the time we had to have oil imported into Ruidoso by a tanker truck, but with this 2,000 gallon truck, we can run to Artesia and pick up a load ourselves and come in and do some of these smaller projects without contracting any of it."

Pothole patching remains a daily priority, he said. On cold days, a crew goes out with cold mix and fills holes.

"We're trying to keep people from tearing up their cars, but it won't last long once a road grader or so comes back over it," he said. "When the weather warms up, we have two options. If we can fire up our hot plant and make hot mix. It is something that will stay there (when patched). Or a crew shoots oil in there and add chips until it is filled back up. We've had several successes. It's really working. It takes a lot of time to do it, but if you don't have to do it twice, it is time well spent."

The street department under Director Fred Payton has filled 50 to 60 potholes in the last couple weeks, he said.