Granite Shoals approves contract for Prairie Creek Road work
Granite Shoals City Council approved spending about $94,000 from the 2017 road bond on additional improvements to Prairie Creek Road, which was starting to crack and ripple. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
A week after talking about needed improvements to Prairie Creek Road, Granite Shoals City Council took action.
During a special meeting June 16, council members approved a change order contract with Fuquay Inc. in the amount of $94,307.60, which will be paid out of the remainder of the street bond voters passed in 2017.
Crews will fix parts of Prairie Creek where the surface has developed slight, but noticeable, ripples. City staff informed the council about the issue during its June 9 regular meeting.
While no one can say for sure what caused the rippling, the city speculates it is because of the amount and type of daily traffic on Prairie Creek, including commercial vehicles carrying heavy loads of equipment, dirt, concrete, and other materials.
“It puts a lot of wear and tear on that road,” City Manager Jeff Looney said.
Repairs will include stripping away about 6 inches of the roadway and replacing it with asphalt graded for the mix of traffic the road gets. Crews also will seal the asphalt to prevent water from soaking in and causing issues.
This expenditure leaves about $319,000 in the 2017 road bond fund, but Looney recommended council members add that to the water bond that voters passed in November 2019.
The council approved that, too.
“We’re putting them together to offset costs for a lower (interest) rate,” Looney said.
Councilor Libby Edwards asked if staff were certain the city shouldn’t hold off on keeping the street bond money a little longer in case of possible “change orders that we might have to leave in that account.”
Mayor Carl Brugger said the last two projects on Prairie Creek Road should finish out the street projects funded through the November 2017 bond. He noted the street work done on Prairie Creek, Valley View, and Phillips Ranch Road were under the $3 million bond that voters approved.
“The project will be done, it’s over,” he said. “We held back because we wanted to be under the $3 million, which we are because we have $300,000 left.”
Looney said that any other expenses will have to come from the general fund with a budget amendment, though no one is expecting that.