The city discusses outlook for roads
By Daniel Arens
Even as the Hazen City Commission looks to examine what roads are in need of repair, they must also look to maintain the roads that were recently worked on.
At previous commission meetings, the commissioners asked Mark Sweeney and Moore Engineering to examine all the roads in Hazen to determine the state of each road and what amount of work would be necessary to bring that street to full capacity.
For some streets that were recently worked on, a simple chip seal or crack repair may be all that is necessary to maintain the street’s condition. However, many streets in Hazen require more work, including a mill and overlay. There are some streets that would need full reconstruction.
The problem for the city commission is determining which streets should be prioritized. On the one hand, doing mill and overlay work on certain streets could prevent those streets from deteriorating further and needing full reconstruction, saving the city lots of money and headaches in the future.
On the other hand, doing smaller work like chip seal on roads that have been redone over the past three years would help maintain those roads, preventing the need for more expensive work on those streets in the next few years.
