City of Lawton streets committee sets new priority list for mill and overlay projects

City of Lawton officials are making plans for a new Top 10 list of mill and overlay projects, less than two weeks after the original street list was approved by the City Council.

Members of the Streets and Bridges Committee set a new list of streets last week, with Committee Chairman George Gill saying the work is part of the effort to keep the Mayor’s Ten Wins for the Citizens concept on target. That concept was Mayor Stan Booker’s promise to citizens to address problem streets after voters agreed in to extend the Ad Valorem Streets Improvement Program for another 10 years to provide another $60 million for upgrading city streets.

Gill has stressed the streets being selected for the “Top Ten” are those that will be repaired via mill and overlay, a technique that calls for the top 1-12 inches of asphalt to be ground off so a fresh layer of asphalt can be applied. The result is a smoother surface for drivers and knowledge for city officials that the life of that particular street has been extended five to eight years.

The first Top Ten list already has been released for bids from private contractors, after winning full council approval Oct. 10.

Gill said the new list — like the original one — represents a mix of priorities: streets identified by City of Lawton consultant EST Inc. as being suitable for mill and overlay, as well as city engineers and streets officials who have their own opinions. The new list actually contains 13 streets, and the last six are streets specifically recommended by city staff, said Streets Superintendent Cliff Haggenmiller.

Haggenmiller said those streets meet the criteria established by the Streets and Bridges Committee. For example, Smith Avenue between North Sheridan Road and Fort Sill Boulevard is a heavily traveled road through a residential area that also is a LATS’ bus route, while Lincoln between Northwest 38th and Northwest 34th Streets also is a bus route that serves a nearby school. East Gore Boulevard, between Lawrie Tatum Road and Northeast Flower Mound Road, is one of east Lawton’s heavily traveled arterials and one of the streets division’s highest complaint areas, in terms of poor road conditions.

Haggenmill said two other proposals are high visibility travel surfaces in the downtown area: Southwest 6th Street between Southwest B and Southwest F avenues, and Southwest C Avenue from Southwest 1st to Southwest 7th streets. Other streets on the new list are adjacent to streets on the original list or continuations of work already planned: Northwest Ferris Avenue between Fort Sill Boulevard and Northwest 17th Street links to work planned for Northwest 17th Street, while work already is planned for Rogers Lane.

Some suggestions didn’t make the new priority list because upgrades already are planned. For example, Gill had proposed Southwest 13th and Southwest 14th streets between Southwest E and Southwest F avenues, but Haggenmiller said his streets crews already had plans to rebuilt those two, one-block segments of badly deteriorated roadway. He said one-block segments of road reconstruction typically take two to three weeks.

“We can start immediately,” he said, of Gill’s concern about the project being delayed. “But, the weather will dictate how soon it will be done.”

Gill said the mill and overlay project lists are being developed to address some — but not all — of the problem streets in Lawton. Gill has said council members want to emphasize repairs over total replacements, saving rebuilding efforts for those streets that are beyond repair. Mill and overlay accomplishes that goal for some worn streets and other heavily traveled streets that city engineers want to keep in good shape, he said.

“These are not immediate fixes,” Gill said.