Summer road program begins to heat up

by Dan Holland

With the repaving and repair of numerous streets in Broadview Heights slated for late spring and summer, the city’s service department along with Specialized Construction Inc., which received a two-year contract on May 1 for pavement reconstruction, resurfacing and repairs within the city, will be in high gear for the 2023 construction season.

Repaving methods, which can include mill and overlay, cold-in-place recycling and other approaches, can vary depending on what is needed for each street, explained Service Director David Schroedel.

“Specialized Construction is the only local company that does the recycling of asphalt – the cold-in-place recycling,” said Schroedel. “It’s a process that we’ve used in the past on Sprague Road and Avery Road. It holds up very well, so that is one of the reasons we were thrilled that [Specialized Construction] was the low bidder.”

Sprague Road, which was repaved two years ago, will receive a topical coating of Reclaimite to extend the useful life of the road surface. Work on Harris Road will include repair of catch basins prior to repaving, and a section of Avery Road will be milled out and receive asphalt replacement. Traffic may be temporarily detoured for one day or less while work is performed on Sprague and Harris roads, said Schroedel.

Service department crews will also focus on repairing catch basins and replacing sections of concrete road surface as necessary. Priority is expected to be given to Antony Drive, Royalwood Road, Quail Run Drive, Scenicview Drive and portions of Country Lakes, said Schroedel.

“We at the service department do a lot of concrete repair work on the roads; we’ll replace, along with catch basins, deteriorated concrete on the roads,” said Schroedel. “There are a few sections on Sprague Road that are in need of repair, so we’re going to take care of that as soon as possible while there is less traffic, as Sprague Road is closed in North Royalton. We go all summer, and we do as much as we can each year.”

The service department recently received a new crack seal machine, asphalt buggy and infrared heater to make repairs to select sections of roadway.

“We are doing more and more asphalt every year, although we are not, and will never be a paving company,” said Schroedel. “We go out and have a crack sealing program every summer where the service department will crack seal streets that need it, which helps preserve the life of the road for as long as possible.”

“With the purchase of an asphalt buggy and infrared heater, we can repair parts of the street,” Schroedel said. “We heat up the asphalt using infrared heat, which runs off of propane, and put some extra asphalt on top and rake it in and roll it using a compactor, which does a much nicer job of fixing a small section of road that is starting to crumble. We’ll be able to do much of that in-house now.”

The city is also the sponsor of a repaving project being done in conjunction with ODOT along West Royalton Road from Seneca Boulevard to the North Royalton city line. Construction work on the project to be handled by ODOT, will include pavement planing, pavement repair, resurfacing, pavement marking, curb ramp and sidewalk upgrades.

Work is expected to begin in mid-June, and traffic will be maintained throughout the work with no full lane closures, according to City Engineer Gary Yelenosky. Costs to the city on the project will total $520,522. ∞