City Council to decide today on final projects for its mill and overlay program

A new round of deteriorating Lawton streets are ready for mill and overlay, if the City Council gives the go-ahead today.

Council members will be asked to award the third and final list of mill and overlay projects to T&G Construction, the Lawton firm that recently completed a list of street repairs identified by the council and city staff earlier this year. The project lists are part of Mayor Stan Booker’s “Ten Wins” initiative that seeks to upgrade residential, collector and some arterials by mill and overlay, a process that grinds off the top layer of asphalt and replaces it with fresh asphalt after some minor repairs (if necessary) are completed. It’s a cost-effective method that will have allowed the city to upgrade 40 streets by the time the third project list is completed by mid-November, said Ward 4 Councilman George Gill, who heads the council’s Streets and Bridges Committee.

Here, T&G Construction bid $3.924 million to tackle 15 more streets: Northeast Rogers Lane, Northwest Keystone Drive, Southwest 76th Street, Southwest Forest Avenue, Southwest Cherokee Avenue, Northwest Hunter Road, Northwest Horton Boulevard, Northwest 14th Street, Northwest 29th Street, Northwest Erwin Lane, Northwest Smith Avenue, Northwest 16th Street, Northwest 12th Street, Northwest 20th Street, and the eastbound lanes of Quanah Parker Trailway. The project also includes portions of Northwest Ferris Avenue and Northwest Lincoln Avenue. Work is to include mill and overlay, and some structural patching.

Council members initially had talked about awarding the last 30 projects at one time, but divided the list in half and awarded the first set of streets earlier this year. T&G was the low bidder on both that list and this one, with its $3.924 million bid on the second set of projects coming in under the $4.316 million engineering estimate. Funding is coming from the city’s operating budget, which Gill has said was built up to provide more funding for road work.

In another familiar project, the council will consider approving a professional engineering agreement with Freese and Nichols Inc., for design work associated with rebuilding South Sheridan Road.

The project is to focus on the deteriorating two-lane section of the road starting one-half mile south of Bishop Road and running north to West Lee Boulevard, a section that includes some businesses and also serves as the primary entrance to Bishop School. The contract is focused on pavement rehabilitation or rebuilding 1.5 miles of roadway, with the contract to range from a preliminary engineering report, to construction plans and right of way legal descriptions, to construction services. Freese and Nichols set a cost of $1,042,000 for the work.

Members of the Engineering Selection Committee recommended the firm in April after a presentation that highlighted a two-year timeframe. Freese and Nichols estimated the project could be ready to let for bids in April 2025, with construction completed by late May 2026. Part of the work will be ensuring access for Bishop School, along with businesses that access South Sheridan Road near West Lee Boulevard. Freese and Nichols already was identifying alternate routes through nearby streets for the businesses, and focusing on using Bishop Road as the main access point for Bishop School, city officials said.