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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL – MAY 31, 2016 5 8. NEW BUSINESS A. Street Maintenance – Bituminous Paving Acting Public Works Director Anderson stated one of the responsibilities of the Public Works Department is to maintain the city’s street infrastructure network. The alternatives available in street maintenance can take various forms including pot hole patching, crack sealing, sealcoating, bituminous overlay, mill and overlay, mill and patch, cut and patch, and concrete curb repair to name a few. Public Works has typically provided the labor on maintenance projects when the scope fell within the bounds of the expertise and equipment available to the department. For those maintenance projects that require specialized skills or equipment not available to Public Works, the City contracts for those services. Acting Public Works Director Anderson reported sealcoating or chipsealing has been one of the staples of pavement maintenance for many years. A relatively new pavement distress called stripping has been observed in bituminous pavement throughout Minnesota. General consensus among bituminous engineers is that sealcoating is the cause of stripping. In response to this, many cities across the metro area have curtailed sealcoating as a maintenance practice until more is known about the relationship between sealcoating and stripping. Arden Hills Public Works has followed suit and suspended any sealcoating until there are more answers on this topic. Acting Public Works Director Anderson indicated many of the streets throughout the city have been reconstructed though a Pavement Management Project. The city has had a fairly regular schedule of reconstruction projects every one to two years for the past 16 years. During the course of these projects, one comment received from residents is “if the City maintained our street, we would not have to reconstruct it and pay the assessment”. In response to that comment, Public Works tries to schedule pavement maintenance to prolong the life of streets, keep costs down and stay out of reconstructing streets. Acting Public Works Director Anderson commented bituminous overlays are one tool that is available to Public Works in the pavement maintenance arena. Public Works currently has access to a paving machine that provides the opportunity to place pavement on roads and parking lots. Other equipment used in the paving process available to Public Works include trucks for hauling material and rollers for compacting and finishing the surface. The value of doing this work ourselves is significant. Currently, the City pays between $50 and $55 per ton for asphalt material. In contracts for small quantities, the City is charged $75 to $90 per ton for mix placed by a contractor or 50% to 60% more than if the City places the material. This cost difference provides a significant savings in the maintenance budget. Acting Public Works Director Anderson reported projects that require the entire surface to be milled before the overlay are currently contracted as the City does not have the specialized equipment necessary to mill the entire surface. Therefore, streets that have no curb are better candidates for maintenance overlay projects that Public Works staff can complete. Acting Public Works Director Anderson stated as discussed with the City Council at the annual Public Works Workshop, the Public Works department has been taking on paving projects as a maintenance function since the paving machine has been available. Some of the