New mill and overlay project list being crafted

The asphalt is barely dry on some new mill and overlay repair projects, and Lawton’s elected officials want to launch even more.

City Council members directed implementation of the city’s mill and and overlay program last year, identifying 40 street segments they said could be upgraded by mill and overlay: a process where the top layer of asphalt is ground off, then replaced with a fresh layer of asphalt (some segments of concrete pavement also can be repaired).

The advantage? Ward 4 Councilman George Gill, who heads the council’s Streets and Bridges Committee, said mill and overlay is significantly less expensive than is a complete rebuild and much less time intensive. For example, city officials recently approved mill and overlay for Southwest 38th Street between West Lee and West Gore boulevards, at an estimated cost of $5.6 million (to include rebuilding some of the most damaged areas) for work that will last about six months. Rebuilding the one-mile segment would take about $30 million and up to three years to do, Gill said.

That’s why Mayor Stan Booker — who has made street repairs one of the center pieces of his community upgrade initiative — wants to expand the mill and overlay program in what he is calling Throttle Up in 2025. During his New Year’s address, Booker challenged the Streets and Bridges Committee to identify 100 new streets for a program that is to be accomplished in 2025.

Committee members already are working on that list, Gill said, explaining they actually have to identify only 76 streets because the group already selected 24 streets in late 2024 so they could be ready to hit the ground running in 2025. The goal, he said, was to build on the original “Ten Wins” project list that grew from 10 to 40 streets in 2024 as funding was identified.

Funding will be easier this year. Not only is additional maintenance funding contained with the streets division’s operating budget, PROPEL 2040 (the new Capital Improvements Program) has one-quarter-percent of sales tax permanently identified for street and bridge work.

Gill said the task now is for committee members to agree to the new projects they want on a list, working from proposals crafted by city engineers, but adding suggestions of their own. Gill said he wants that project list to go to the full council for action as soon as possible, because he and Booker want even more street upgrades under way in 2025.

Some work on the list is a foregone conclusion: Southwest 38th Street, West Gore Boulevard to Bishop Road, is project 80, but council members (upon the recommendation of the Streets and Bridges committee) plans to let the first mile (West Gore to West Lee) for bids by March, meaning work could be under way by summer. The second mile will be done at a later date.

Like the 2024 project lists, streets on this year’s proposed list include a healthy dose of residential street segments, but there are some arterials and collectors. In fact, the first two streets listed are Cache Road, between Northwest 67th and Northwest 82nd streets (a long-time suggestion by west Lawtonians) and Fort Sill Boulevard, Northwest Ferris Avenue to Rogers Lane (like west Cache Road, a long-time thorn in the city’s side).

Some are familiar from other work: a mill and overlay is proposed for the south half-mile of Southwest 52nd Street, between the railroad tracks and West Lee Boulevard. The half-mile from the railroad tracks north to West Gore Boulevard was rebuilt several years ago, with the promise the remainder of the street would be redone.

Some already is under way: Goodyear Boulevard, in Lawton’s west industrial park, is listed on the proposal list, but the city already has launched a repair project on the north half-mile.