Oil costs cutting into road work

By David Skolnick

The city will repave just 52 streets this year, compared to 59 last year.

YOUNGSTOWN — Rising petroleum prices mean fewer streets in the city will be resurfaced.

The cost of this year’s program, $1,543,186, is about $120,000 more expensive than last year, when more streets were repaved. In 2007, the city had 59 streets repaved, compared to 52 this year.

The blame lies with the cost of petroleum, the key component in asphalt, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public works department.

The cost of petroleum increased by about 26 percent from last year. Petroleum is $130 a cubic yard, compared to $103 a cubic yard last year, Shasho said.

The city’s annual street repaving program will begin in late June, and will take up to 75 days to finish, he said.

The city hired the Shelly Co., a Twinsburg company, for the work. That company’s $1,543,186 proposal was less expensive than the only other proposal submitted to the city for the job. That $1,554,690 proposal came from Shelly and Sands, an Akron company.

This is the third consecutive year that the city awarded the repaving project to the Shelly Co.

Shelly and Sands handled the city resurfacing work from 2003 to 2005.

The 52 streets are equivalent to 27 lane miles. A lane mile is one mile long and 12 feet wide, Shasho said.

Last year’s program was for 32.5 lane miles.

Public works employees ride the city’s streets to determine which will be repaved, Shasho said.

“We try to pick the worst ones,” he said. “We combine poor condition with the amount of traffic to determine which streets are selected.”

About half of the repaving cost comes from the federal Community Development Block Grant, with the rest from the city’s $5 vehicle license fee.

skolnick@vindy.com