The Covington city government is set to approve a slew of road resurfacing projects next week.
Three resurfacing contracts, which will be paid from varying funding sources, will appear on the consent agenda at next week’s meeting of the Covington Board of Commissioners, meaning they will likely be approved. The commissioners were informed about the projects by the Public Works Department Tuesday night.
Public Works Director Bill Matteoli told LINK nky that exact dates for when the streets will be resurfaced haven’t been hammered out yet but that everything should be taken care of by the beginning of November, depending on the weather. Affected residents will be notified by mail and signs will be posted informing people of the work.
“They’re actually mailers are all stamped and ready to go to everyone,” Matteoli said. “We plan on mailing them out tomorrow.”
The city provided a map and list showing which roads are set to be resurfaced below.
The first group of projects will be funded with federal Community Block Development Grant, or CDBG, funding. Seven stretches of road have been identified for federal funding. The city received three bids for the projects, the lowest of which came from Riegler Blacktop at roughly $328,000.
The second group of projects will be pulled from the current fiscal year’s infrastructure fund. Two companies bid for this bundle of resurfacing. Walton-based company Eaton Asphalt came in the lowest bid at roughly $877,570.
The final set of projects will also come from the city’s infrastructure fund but will be paid from the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Eaton Asphalt likewise secured the winning bid for this project at roughly $428,856.
Commissioner James Toebbe noted how the roads were spread out throughout the city.
“I’m glad to see South Covington’s being covered,” Toebbe said.
Matteoli briefly discussed how roads were identified for resurfacing. The first is through a company called iWorQ, which came out and rated the city’s streets four years ago, Matteoli said. This winter, Covington and several other cities agreed to become part of a program called Infrahub, a platform for infrastructure that includes an AI component, which Matteoli said he was “pretty excited” about.
“We haven’t got there yet, but the AI is actually supposed to figure out a five-year pavement program for you, and how you should go about it, and which area you should hit,” Matteoli said.
The city still uses iWorQ to collect complaints about particular roads. Residents can submit a complaint online here. Commissioner Tim Downing encouraged residents to make use of the system.
“This is the way that they (residents) can quickly and easily identify where a pot hole is, let the city know where it is [and] get communication about timing for the fix,” Downing said.
“Oftentimes we receive complaints about the status of our roads, and not to throw anything at the great commonwealth, but most of the times those belong to the state,” said Mayor Ron Washington. “Our crew does a pretty good job on the city streets.”
