Crews from Lakeside Industries work on paving a stretch of South Scheuber Road from Cooks Hill Road to Graf Road on Tuesday morning in Centralia. The road work is estimated to continue through the end of the week.
A steamroller rolls freshly dropped asphalt onto Scheuber Road in this September 2016 file photo.
A woman walks along the sidewalk on Scheuber Road as a crew from Lakeside Industries repave the road last September in Centralia.
Traffic is stopped along Cooks Hill Road as workers from Lakeside Industries pave Scheuber Road on Tuesday morning in Centralia.
The city of Centralia completed a road improvement project on South Scheuber Road last week, wrapping up the city’s projects funded by the taxpayer-supported Transportation Benefit District projects for this year.
Lakeside Industries was subcontracted to repair, pre-level and overlay the road from Cooks Hill Road to Graf Road. Kim Ashmore, Centralia street, stormwater and fleet manager, said the city did the striping and centerline work for the project.
“So far, comments we’ve received from people have been positive,” he said.
The project was one of four completed with funds from the Transportation Benefit District, a voter approved two-tenths of 1 percent tax focused on road improvements.
The majority of the South Scheuber Road project took two days to complete and, in terms of cost, it was the biggest project funded by the district. On Monday, Lakeside finished the work by raising water lids and manhole covers to service level.
The other three projects completed with the TBD funding were a 6-mile chip seal of residential neighborhoods in the areas of Buckner and Diamond streets from Girard Street to East Chestnut Street, and Gold Street to the base of Seminary Hill.
A rebuild of Washington Avenue between Cherry and Alder, and between Cherry and Plum Street, was also completed earlier. Ashmore said the center section of the road was taken out, and refilled by Lakeside.
Main Street was also resurfaced from the Skookumchuck River bridge up to Pearl Street. It was the first project funded with TBD dollars.
Based on input from residents and city council, Ashmore said the city is focusing not only on main throughways that need repairs, but also neighborhood streets.
“The residents helped pass that tax, so we have to find residential neighborhoods to do a fair share of those as well,” he said. “I just hope the public sees the work we are doing and that we are showing them that since they passed the tax, we are spending those dollars wisely.”
Ashmore said he hopes citizens of Centralia continue to support the projects and provide feedback. The road work funded by the Transportation Benefit District is complete for this year.
Ashmore said staff is currently looking at 2017 priorities.
“We have a good list of them. We’re going to rate and rank them, and hopefully spend more TBD dollars on more improvements the public will get behind and support,” he said.
This year, $465,000 was made available for road improvements after the city began collecting the tax in April. Accounting for a full year of taxes, the number will increase to approximately $670,000 each year for the years 2017 to 2025.
