By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
HOWARD – A contract for more than $1.7 million was awarded Monday, March 11, by the village board to MCC, Inc., for asphalt resurfacing in Howard for 2019, contingent upon attorney review of the contract.
MCC provided the lowest overall bid for 17 projects, for which the most expensive will be $434,588 for pulverizing and paving Riverview Drive from Cardinal Lane to Velp Avenue.
Next expensive will be the reconstructing the Meadowbrook School parking lot for $296,604.
The contract is being executed as part of a five-year resurfacing program the village board reviewed last December.
Geoff Farr, village public works director, said Howard has 110 miles of roadway with an average lifespan of 25 years.
He said an average of 4.4 miles should be paved per year with a minimum annual budget of $1.3 million.
“We’re doing a little less than that, around $1 million a year, because we have some significant projects upcoming,” Farr said.
Farr noted those future projects the village will be involved in include the interchange to be built at County VV and State Highway 29, the Lineville Road reconstruction and Vincent Road.
“It’s very possible that due to the VV interchange, that $3 million that was previously planned (in village funds for that project), we may have to scale back resurfacing in some subsequent years as well,” Farr said.
When Trustee Chris Nielsen asked about Brown County planning to work on the section of Riverview Drive west of Cardinal Lane at a later date when the section to the east would be completed, Farr said the village could ask the county to travel around the newly-paved area, which would be designed to handle truck traffic.
The county had initially planned this year to resurface the section of Riverview Road (County J) from Shawano Avenue (County C) to Cardinal Lane (County EB).
But Farr said that section of roadway was one of several projects the county removed from this year’s work to instead repair a portion of County ZZ toward Wrightstown, where a section of that road parallel to the Fox River is falling into the river.
“Presumably, this (county resurfacing project on Riverview Drive) will come up again in 2020, since it was on the docket this year.” Farr said.
The county’s six-year plan for highway and bridge improvement projects had called for reconditioning that section of Riverview Drive west of Cardinal Lane this year with county funds covering the entire $874,000 cost.