Poor pavement conditions and the freeze-thaw effects have taken a visible toll on Stevens Point streets in recent weeks.
“We have big pavement problems right now and they’re only going to get worse over the next 30 days,” said Mayor Andrew Halverson. “This is the worst time of the year for roads, and it’s going to be for the next 30 to 45 days. If you think Fourth Avenue is bad now, wait.”
Halverson said the city will try to expedite reconstructing Fourth Avenue from Division Street to Stanley Street.
“Fourth Avenue and Isadore Street, they literally look like downtown Baghdad in terms of the condition. And it is so extreme now… we have immediately changed our gears. That is going to become a total reconstruct now. It has to be, the road is destroyed,” he said. “We’ll patch them and put light asphalt in them as best we can until we can tear it out, but we have to tear it out fast.”
The Common Council already authorized $3,245,000 in annual borrowing for capital projects for 2013. Halverson said more will money will be needed to address deteriorating road conditions.
“We just had someone that literally lost a tire in a pothole on Fourth Avenue. We have got to deal with it right away and it’s going to cost more money,” he said. “And we may look at Michigan Avenue and we may look at Isadore from Division to Maria from an emergency perspective as well. They have now gone to nearly undriveable characteristics, and that we cannot have.”
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