City to begin work on potholes

At the Breckenridge City Commissioners meeting on Jan. 2, the commissioners passed an item that would allow up to $50,000 to be spent on remedying the potholes around Breckenridge.

The city is getting the $50,000 from their budget for street maintenance, which comes from a quarter-cent sales tax.

City Manager Andy Mc-Cuistion said the limit will be $50,000 as if it goes over that, the city would have to formally bid it out. Electing to keep it under $50,000 and bid it informally, the city has already begun making calls out to companies. They will be partnering with Raydon, who McCuistion said the city has worked with in the past.

McCuistion said the going rate for potholes would cost about $3.50 per square foot. This means a 2-by-2 pothole would cost about $14 to fix.

Recent weather, however, has made getting to work on the potholes more difficult. It is still too wet in a lot of the afflicted areas to begin street work and several holes still have water in them. Though, some work has been started in areas like Rose Avenue and 2nd Street.

The pothole situation in Breckenridge has been exasperated in recent weeks and months, as the area received about a foot of rain in December, McCuistion said. Stephens County in total received 1.39 inches of rain in December, according to Weather Underground. Initially, the city had hoped to begin fixing some of the potholes in the past couple months but were unable to because of the rain.

“We’ve still had rain off and on, and the potholes have overwhelmed the already small staff that I have,” McCuistion said.

In trying to keep up with the holes made, the city will put base in several holes. But rainy weather typically washes out the base, and then traffic over the holes slowly chips away and makes the potholes bigger.

Potholes are not the only issue though. Water cuts, which are sections of road that are taken out in order to access the water pipes below surface, have also contributed to the issue.

The process is still in its early stages, but the city wants ›to start around the hospital and the schools, then begin working on roads around the city based on severity of potholes and amount of traffic the particular street sees. Some areas McCuistion had in mind are Elm Street and 7th Street, which he called high traffic areas.

He also said while he believes $50,000 will make a dent in the issue, if more money is needed he will go to the city commissioners and ask.

McCuistion said he wasn’t sure when the potholes would all be fixed, especially because of the recent weather. He added money is always an issue, and he predicts potholes will always be a problem until the city can afford to repave the roads.

For more information on potholes, or to find out when the city will be trying to fix potholes in your residential area, contact the city at 254-559-8287.