Using mill and overlay on Lee Boulevard would speed repair work

Work on one of the roughest streets in south Lawton could begin as soon as City of Lawton administrators identify funding, members of the City Council Streets and Bridges Committee said.

Committee members want to extend the mill and overlay program already under way across the city to more streets, including what is identified as Phase III of the Lee Boulevard upgrade. Phase III focuses on the area between Southwest 67th and Southwest 38th streets, and it is part of a multi-phase proposal to improve the arterial between Goodyear Boulevard on the west and Interstate 44 on the east. Upgrades are done between Southwest 67th Street and Goodyear Boulevard, with work on Goodyear Boulevard itself (identified as Phase II of the Lee project) ready to begin this year.

Under that multi-phase plan, Phase III isn’t slated to begin until mid-2025. Ward 4 Councilman George Gill, who chairs the streets committee, said the city needs to start Phase III sooner rather than later.

“My objective is to find the money to do it,” he said.

Gill said other city officials agree, explaining this segment of West Lee — particularly the mile between Southwest 38th and Southwest 52nd streets — is one of the most criticized roads in Lawton. Most who drive the segment describe that area as a roller coaster.

Gill said while he agrees there are bad segments in that area that need to be rebuilt, it could be done within the context of a mill and overlay project that would cost significantly less than the $20 million city officials have estimated for a rebuild. The plan the committee will recommend to the full council would be to launch a mill and overlay program, with some deep structural repairs on required areas and gutter work. The project would be launched as soon as funding is available rather than waiting until 2025, Gill said, adding mill and overlay would require about six months, versus two years for a rebuild.

Ward 2 Councilman Kelly Harris, also a member of the streets committee, liked the idea.

“This probably is the single biggest road we hear about,” he said.

Ward 5 Councilman Allan Hampton, the committee’s third member, asked about grants that could lessen the city’s cost, as was done via economic development funding for the first phase of West Lee Boulevard and will be done for Goodyear Boulevard. Mayor Stan Booker said city officials could seek out grants.

This isn’t the only work that the committee wants to move to the mill and overlay list.

Members also recommended that four streets listed for rebuilding under the 2017 Ad Valorem Streets and Bridges Program instead be repaired via mill and overlay.

While that project list originally had 4.75 miles of roads in five segments, the committee recommended that work on Northwest Ferris Avenue, east of Fort Sill Boulevard, be removed because part of that street already has new asphalt overlay. That leave four other segments: Southwest 52nd Street from West Lee Boulevard north 0.45 mile to the railroad tracks; 1 mile of Cache Road between Southwest 67th and Southwest 82nd streets; 1 mile of South 11th Street between West Gore and West Lee boulevards; and 1.5 miles of Fort Sill Boulevard between Northwest Ferris Avenue and Rogers Lane.

Gill said WSB has analyzed all four segments and found them to be candidates for mill and overlay, adding his goal is to save the city time and money in rebuild projects that could take two years and $30 million to complete.

“It’s a pretty big savings in time and taxpayer dollars,” he said, adding engineers have estimated the mill and overlay work at $7.5 million.

Committee members said they weren’t completely taking Northwest Ferris Avenue off the table. Part of the road already has a new surface, so rebuilding it could wait. Cost estimates on that project range from $3.5 million to replace what is there, to $5.25 million to rebuild the street into three lanes.

“I’m okay with redoing it, but it doesn’t have to be done yet,” Gill said.