City to repave 2 Lower Burrell streets, chip-and-seal others

Lower Burrell’s public works department is working on plans to repave Kentucky Drive and Reed Street while preserving other city streets this summer.

The city will repave all of Kentucky Drive. That includes repaving Kentucky Court and a portion of Reed Street, from Leechburg Road to Reed’s intersection with Kentucky Drive.

There are many utility line patches and cracks in those roads, said Todd Giammatteo, director of the city’s public works and parks department.

The city will preserve almost a dozen other roads by using the “chip and seal” process.

The roads to be treated are: Alder, Brady, Diane, Frank and Kurt streets; Glauser and Scanga drives; Ben Davis and Kipp avenues; Spiering Lane, and Spiering Hill Court, said Matthew Pitsch, of Senate Engineering, the city’s engineer.

The maintenance treatment helps prolong the life of the road, Giammatteo said.

The city has a limited budget for street maintenance, which typically totals between $230,000 and $250,000 annually, he said. The budgets have enough to repave a couple of roads and seal others each year, he said.

The city has a road assessment program by which it rates road conditions on a scale of one to five, with five ranking as the best road category.

“This year, we are up to roads in the No. 3 category, meaning we have already repaved roads previously ranked in the worst condition,” he said.

The city has advertised for a contractor for the projects. Giammatteo expects the city to award a paving contract this month.

Pitsch said the road work likely will be completed between July and September, dependent on contractor schedules.