Port St. Lucie spent $200,000 recently to resurface a 2.5-mile stretch of Selvitz Road from Bayshore Boulevard north nearly to Midway Road.
The city plans to spend another $250,000 this year repaving one mile of Morningside Boulevard, home of the city-owned Saints at Port St. Lucie Golf Course, from Westmoreland to Port St. Lucie boulevards. Port St. Lucie already completed 29 miles of resurfacing projects scheduled for the 2018-2019 budget year, said city spokeswoman Sarah Prohaska.
That includes repaving Bayshore Boulevard and Oakridge Drive south of Port St Lucie Boulevard. The project cost $300,000.
Port St. Lucie spends $3 million annually repaving city streets, with those rated in the worst condition getting top priority, city records show. The city also spends $1 million per year constructing sidewalks.
The city will have an extra $27.5 million for resurfacing in the next 10 years thanks to voter approval in November of a half-percent sales tax increase.
That nearly doubles the city’s annual repaving budget.
The city will also have an additional $11 million for sidewalks in the next decade, more than doubling the city’s annual sidewalk budget.
All told, the sales-tax hike is expected to generate a total of $88 million during the next 10 years for city road, sidewalk and drainage projects.
City public works officials are revising the city’s 10-Year Repaving Master Plan and the Sidewalk Master Plan to reflect the additional income, Prohaska said. The updated plans will be presented to the City Council in July.
In a related matter, the council voted unanimously April 22 to approve contracts with Ranger Construction and J.W. Cheatam to provide 200 tons of asphalt to repave city roads. City streets require resurfacing every 15-to-20 years, the city’s repaving master plan says. However, it typically takes the city 25-to-30 years to repave most streets.
The 10-year repaving plan calls for 513 miles of streets to be resurfaced at an estimated cost of $45 million.
The city inspected city streets in 2015 to measure problems such as roughness, cracking, rutting, patching and raveling. Those factors were used to identify the roads most in need of resurfacing.
The first step in repaving a street is grinding the asphalt down an inch, said city Traffic Engineer Heath Stockton. The city recycles the ground-up asphalt for a variety of purposes. Brushing machines clean the road surface so it can be sprayed with a liquid-emulsified asphalt that helps bind the old asphalt to the new asphalt.
Then a paving machine applies asphalt that is fed on a conveyor belt from a dump truck, Stockton said. Lastly, heavy rollers compact the asphalt to prevent rutting and raveling.
It takes a 10-person work crew to perform all the tasks, including flagmen to keep traffic flowing when a lane is closed.
The sales tax revenue will provide the city with enough money in the next 10 years to complete the 35 miles of sidewalks left in the master plan, city records show.
However, it would cost more than $3 billion to build sidewalks throughout Port St. Lucie, city records show.
The city’s founder, General Development Corp., built sidewalks only in certain neighborhoods like Sandpiper Bay/Club Med.
Sidewalk construction costs about $400,000 per mile, depending on the need for culvert extensions, bridge modifications, handrails or other special circumstances, the master plan says.
The city is currently building sidewalks on Hillmoor Drive from St. Lucie Medical Center to Wood Stork Trail, city records show. The city built sidewalks on Hillmoor Drive between Lennard Road and Interlachen Drive earlier this year.
The city is also buildings sidewalks on Paar Drive between Port St. Lucie and Savona boulevards, city records show. The city plans to start work later this year on Paar Drive sidewalks between Port St. Lucie and Darwin boulevards.
The city budgeted nearly $1 million for the 1.8 miles of sidewalks on Paar Drive, city records show.
