Large street project to begin Tuesday

WORLAND — The next big street project in Worland begins next Tuesday and includes 15,000 linear feet of city streets.

Worland Public Works Superintendent Brian Burky said this year’s street project will in the southwest part of the city from Howell to Washakie Avenue, but it does not include Washakie Avenue. Running east to west it runs from the Lower Hanover Canal to Railway Avenue but it does not include Railway.

The project includes rehabilitation of the paved streets, sealing all the cracks and applying mastic. Mastic, he said, is a thicker product than crack seal with about three-eighths inch chips. He said it holds longer and the mastic is put on the edges of the road.

Crack seal is designed to flow and that keeps the water out of the cracks. The crack seal does not work as well with the bigger cracks on the edges of the road.

Burky said the city will be using a new machine, free of charge, on the project. The machine is a Cimline and will be used to put mastic down first on the edge of the road, more efficiently and better than the city has been able to in the past. The same machine will be used to put on the crack seal as well.

He said he was talking to Bart Lungren, an expert in paving, about the upcoming city project and he told Burky about the new machine. He said the machine has been used on a project in Minnesota and will be used here in Worland. It is expected to be available commercially later this year.

“We were fortunate to be chosen [to use the machine]. It’s saving us quite a bit of money,” Burky said. “We’re excited about using this machine.”

While Cimline is providing use of the machine, McGarvin Moberly is the contractor on the project. “We’re excited to have them do this project. They have the horsepower to come in and knock this project out,” Burky said.

RESIDENTIAL IMPACT

While the city is excited about the project, Burky said residents need to be aware there will be some inconveniences during the project.

“We’ll be doing this in several phases,” Burky said of the three-week project.

The first phase will be the mastic, then will come the crack seal, followed the road sealer that is sprayed over the entire road.

“All of these products will extend the life of the roads. Some roads [in the city] are broken down too far that this process won’t work,” Burky said.

Fliers will handed out to residents a few days before the project moves to their neighborhood. He said residents that will be impacted on Tuesday when the project begins, will be notified on Saturday. He said vehicles will need to be moved off the street and out of driveways before the project begins. He said if a vehicle is left in a driveway the person may be unable to get it out if the project has already begun on that block.

He said they will do one block and move on, so residents will only be inconvenienced one day for each phase.

“Last year we had to tow a few cars. That slows us down tremendously and it is expensive for everybody,” Burky said.

Burky said they need streets dry and clean before beginning so the crews were out street sweeping the area Thursday and Friday. He asks residents to make sure if they water lawns and gardens that they don’t let water run into the street.

Why the southwest area? “Going through town we always look at areas where this approach will work. We want to do as much in an area as we can.”

The project cost is around $150,000. “It’s a good use of our one-cent road tax money,” Burky said, adding that the one-cent money and the same approach was used on the project in the Pulliam, Robertson, Circle Drive area with “good results.”

Burky said they will use 7,000 gallons of crack sealer and 30,000 pounds of mastic on the 15,000 linear feet of road.

“All work is weather dependent. We’ll try to get in and out of neighborhoods as quickly as we can but we ask residents to be patient and understanding. There’s no easy way to make road improvements with regular traffic on them,” Burky said.