Lamar Priortizes Road Repairs Project

Water Pipeline Replacement on East Maple Street in 2012

The City of Lamar has just over 60 municipal miles to take care of and a recently upgraded map outlining those streets and roadways that are in need of repair was distributed to the city council by Director of Public Works, Pat Mason.  There are 13 miles rated ‘poor’ which require an overlay or should be rebuilt.  About 33 miles are rated ‘fair’ and are in need of rejuvenation or a crack seal and 8.3 miles of street are in ‘good’ condition and are considered new in the last six to ten years.  The city also has about 6.5 miles of dirt or gravel roads which are unpaved. 

City Administrator, John Sutherland, recently briefed the council on the cost breakdown for those repairs, comparing them against the city’s 2014 budget of $300,000 for street improvements.  That’s double the figure from the 2013 budget.  A two inch overlay of 8.58 miles would cost $1,511,737, a chip seal project of just over four miles was estimated at $223,312 and literally rebuilding a quarter mile of roadway is estimated at $133,216 all using city personnel and equipment for the repair projects. 

Sutherland said that just by simple economics, a city-wide street repair program would take over five years to complete, using the current budget allowances.  He added, “This is a project that needs to be done, and even though we have prioritized which roads should receive our first consideration, we can’t afford to do all thirteen miles at one time.”  The Administrator did allow that some individual projects could be done by the local street department, but if the city concentrated only on the streets, there are other projects and regular maintenance that still need to be done.  Sutherland said one consideration would be to bid out the complete repair project, but repairs would be staggered over several years, pending available funding. 

Some high priority areas are South 14^th Street between Yucca and Park, almost all of Memorial Drive, from South Main Street to Road EE.5 bordering Fairmount Cemetery.  All of Willow Valley is included, as well as east and west portions of Cedar Street, east and west portions of Maple and Beech Streets and 11^th Street between Hickory and Washington Streets.  Kendall Drive which runs around the Prowers Medical Center and High Plains Community Health Center complex are also listed as being in poor condition.  North and South Main Streets are not city property and are owned by CDOT, Colorado Department of Transportation.

By Russ Baldwin