Kalispell street repairs start Monday

Kalispell starts its 2012 street maintenance schedule this week, with five city streets targeted for milling and overlays.

Streets on the schedule include:

 Glenwood Drive from Husky Street to Two Mile Drive.

 Second Street West from Meridian Road west to the dead end.

 Eighth Avenue West from Seventh Street south 120 feet.

 First Street East from Third Avenue East to Woodland Avenue.

 Second Avenue East from 11th Street East to 12th Street East.

This year’s milling and overlay street projects total an estimated $155,336, city officials said.

The work is funded by the street maintenance assessment Kalispell levies on property owners each year and gas tax appropriations.

Hired contractors start milling the streets Monday. Kalispell’s crews then will overlay the streets. Each street should take three days to mill and another four to six days to repave.

“It might be a little faster than that,” said Susie Turner, acting public works director.

“It’s weather-dependent. If it rains it makes it more difficult, but we’ll get it done as fast as we can.”

STREET CREWS will be out filling potholes and cracks and doing minor milling and asphalt patching this spring and summer to ready streets to be chip-sealed.

Kalispell in March awarded a $230,724 contract for the 2012 chip-seal project to Pavement Maintenance Solutions of Columbia Falls.

Chip-sealing is scheduled to start the first week of September.

Seven streets are on this year’s project list:

n Woodland Park Drive from Conrad Drive to Anderson Masonry.

n Conrad Drive from Woodland Avenue to Woodland Park Drive.

n West Montana Street from Main Street to Eighth Avenue West North.

n East Montana Street from Main Street to Fifth Avenue East North.

n First Street West from Main Street to 10th Avenue West.

n First Street East from Main Street to Woodland Avenue.

n Seventh Street West from Main Street to Meridian Road.

CREWS WILL be out grading some of Kalispell’s remaining gravel alleys this spring and again in the fall and will pave some city alleys as time and funding allows throughout the summer.

“They have a goal to pave 14 [blocks of] alleys a year,” Turner said.

“It’s kind of the fill-in work between the bigger jobs, so they’ll be doing that also.”

Problem potholes on other city streets not on this year’s list of milling and overlay or chip-seal projects can be reported to public works.

“If they see a large pothole we can send our street superintendent to check it out and if it needs repaired, we’ll fix it,” Turner said.

The upcoming city road work is separate from the ongoing state reconstruction of Idaho Street between Meridian Road and First Avenue West North.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.