Submitted by Fort Scott City Commissioner Pete Allen.
When a group of about 70 people comes in for a family reunion, take the trolley ride and the thing that sticks out most in their mind is the bumpy streets, something is wrong!
When 3 people from out of town do a survey of FS for a group called “First Impressions” and when asked what you will remember most about FS after 30 days, the answer of 2 out of 3 is “the bumpy streets”, something is wrong! That is unless you like bumpy streets.
General
This summary is a brief and concise summary of the findings, conclusions, and recommendations for a proposed City of Fort Scott Street Multi-Year Special Maintenance Plan.
Findings
The city operates and maintains approximately 83 miles of streets. Most of the streets are beyond their life cycle and require moderate to major maintenance to prevent further deterioration and require major construction for correction.
Funding for street work is projected to come from a recently enacted one
percent County sales tax, a 1% City sales tax (1986) and a half percent City
sales tax along with a State Gasoline Tax. This is supplemented by
connecting link payment of approximately $12,500.
With the cost of street improvements (rebuild) estimated to be in the $140
M range, the overall time frame for those improvements would be 62
years.
There is no ordinance preventing us from applying the asphalt mixture to
existing brick streets. In fact, it has become common practice.
Fort Scott’s brick streets have been laid over existing soil consisting of black
dirt, clay or clay/rock mixtures with about a 1” layer of sand and these
streets do not meet the requirements for present day traffic loads.
It was recently learned, by me, that in the 1990’s an attempt to discover
the cost of rebuilding (major reconstruction) of our brick streets was
undertaken. A section of Eddy Street south of 9th Street was chosen for the
study. As reported to me, the bricks were removed, curb and gutter was
poured, and a concrete base was installed. Then the bricks were re-laid.
Detailed job costs were kept, and the consensus result was that it would be
cost prohibitive to rebuild them. No other attempt was made to rebuild. I
believe that it was then decided on the procedure of overlaying the brick
streets.
No further attempt should be made to overlay with asphalt, any of the
remaining unpaved brick streets.
Typical base under existing Brick Streets
Total cross section is approximately 5”
Typ. cross section of modern engineered roadway for comparative
purpose
6” of compacted earth
8” of AB-3 Base Rock
10” of hot mix asphalt
Total cross section thickness is 24”
• Generally, these brick streets have failed as the result of heavy loads being
driven over them and they would fall into a classification as “unrepairable” with
75 to 80 percent of our streets falling into this classification.
• On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, our streets would rate (PCI) at
about a 3.5 average meaning they are full of potholes, sunken areas, and other
conditions that would make them nearly impassable.
• Each year with the continued infiltration of moisture and heavy loads they
continue to deteriorate and each year at an accelerated rate over the previous
year.
Recommendations
A decision now must be made to shift from the street re-construction
schedule to a more proactive maintenance program, performing low to
moderate cost, high impact maintenance activities which increase the
Pavement Condition Index (PCI) on streets requiring minimal to moderate
maintenance to gain service life.
While maintenance projects and activities are not as glamorous, these
efforts will provide an economical means of extending the life to major
investments in the street network.
As a result of that shift, improvements will be made to the driving surfaces
in the overall street network.
This proactive maintenance program should continue, as the most
economical means to maintain and improve the street network with the
available funding.
The rebuilding of streets should not be suspended, only scaled back to
properly fund needed maintenance to protect the community’s previous
investments in street infrastructure.
This plan attempts to provide a balanced approach and cost-effective
measures to increase the PCI score and improve our street drivability.
With implementation, all classifications of streets will meet or exceed an
average PCI goal of 5 over the next seven to ten years.
Examples of maintenance activities include pothole repair, sections of
nonrepairable asphalt and bricks replaced with asphalt, skim patching,
alligator cracking repairs, crack filling, chip sealing, and broken concrete
repairs.
It is imperative that we make our existing streets as “drivable” (min. PCI of
5) as possible at the lowest cost, as they must be used by the motorists
until such time as they can be reconstructed.
We do not have the financial resources to rebuild the nearly 700 blocks of
our unrepairable streets. At the average rate of even $200K per block, that
sum equals $140M dollars.
With the advent of our pothole patching machine, using proper aggregate
and asphalt emulsions and training in the proper techniques, we are now
able to use the machine for performing the above-described process.
The downtown historical district would be designated for complete brick
street restoration, as well as selected other isolated areas, such as 5th
Street by the Old Church and 3rd Street by Eugene Ware School, with other
areas deemed historic by the governing body.
These areas would not be included in this Street Maintenance Program but
would be funded from a Brick Street Fund taken from the sales tax revenue.
A $200,000 yearly fund would be established for that purpose.
Note that areas outside the historic district could remain brick by the
establishment of a benefit district upon approval by 80% of adjoining
property owners.
City would be responsible for standard reconstruction with adjoining
property owners responsible for additional cost for replacing bricks. No
particular priority would be given these streets to fit in the 62 years rebuild
program.
All other areas would be included in the Street Maintenance Program
subject to maintenance procedures as described above.
This would include the buildup of missing and sunken areas with the
pothole patching machine and materials.
Standard chip seal would be used as part of street maintenance for streets
such as Liberty Bell Road and sections of Horton Street.
Following the improvement methods described above, standard chip seal
methods would be utilized for additional leveling and preservation. County
has equipment for chip sealing and is available for cost sharing.
Mill and overlay would be classified as street maintenance and would
include Broadway and 6th Streets. Such streets would be reconstructed if
grants would become available.
The “like for like” “materials as described in Ord. 12.12.090 – Restoration to
original condition” would be discontinued and the installation of hot-mix
asphalt in excavations in streets listed in the “unrepairable” classification
with cold-mix as a temporary material when hot-mix would be unavailable.
Continuance of the requirements in Ord. 12.12.090 would be enforced in all
street and alley excavations (excavation and backfill).
Approximate cost of treatment is estimated to be $5,000 per block on
average with the goal of 100 blocks treated per year ($500,000). This
would compare to an estimated cost of $200,000 per block, or $20M for
the 100 blocks.
Yearly material usage requirements would be approximately 14,000 gallons
of emulsion and approximately 600 tons of ½” chips ($48,000).
A heated upright 7,000-gallon emulsion storage tank would need to be
purchased and erected at the City Facility. Note: This tank was authorized
and ordered at the commission meeting of Feb. 1, 2022. This tank
compliments the initial purchase of the Total Patcher machine at the cost of
$68,000 and will allow us to manufacture our own patching material for the
above-mentioned maintenance activities. Training in the use and proper
care of the machine was performed in May of 2021. Nine public works
employees were trained