Plant City to see road improvements as well as new recreation spot
Road Resurfacing
The Plant City City Commission approved a selection of streets to be improved for the next fiscal year on April 25.
The city’s Fiscal Year 2022-23 Street Resurfacing Program includes milling and resurfacing 30 top-priority streets in town.
Longevity is a factor in the reduced conditions of the roadways which motorists may see in the form of cracks or potholes.
“Roads are only good for 12 to 15 years under normal use and you have to resurface them,” said Plant City City Manager Bill McDaniel. “About six years ago, the city commission embarked on a plan to dedicate that 1 mil of funding toward them.”
A mil is a tax payable per dollar of the assessed value of a property.
The estimated program funds available for the upcoming 2023 fiscal year are $2,904,021. However, $500,000 of those funds will be set aside for the planned South Collins Street resurfacing project from Alsobrook Street to Park Road in fiscal year 2024.
Another $250,000 will be taken out to fund geotechnical investigations, plus engineering design for fiscal year 2024
This leaves about $2.2 million left to fund the program for next fiscal year, with $1.5 million going toward reconstructing the 30 primary streets – accumulating to over 6 miles.
There is also a list of 24 alternate streets which the other $1 million funds will go toward.
Whether all of the alternate streets are put on the 2023 resurfacing program will depend on how much funds remain, when the most suitable contractor is chosen through a bidding process.
Should there not be enough funding, those alternate streets will then roll over into the 2024 resurfacing program as top priorities.
The 2023 program will also consist of installing ramps that meet the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as making minor drainage improvements and replacing road bases as necessary.
With the approval of the commission, the program is anticipated to undergo geotechnical investigations and engineering designs in May.
The bidding process and selection of the contractor will occur at the beginning of the 2023 fiscal year, this October, to December. Then comes the construction phase which is planned to extend from January to June of 2023.
A road analysis is initially done in order to determine which streets are in most need of repair.
“We have a city-wide pavement assessment plan where we hired an engineering firm and they went and drove every street in the city, looked at the condition of every one of them, gave them a grade (and) put them on a list,” McDaniel said.
The windshield assessment surveys the condition of the road, while the sewer assessment surveys the sewage lines under roads.
Upon completion of the upcoming project, 290 streets – running 87 miles, will have been resurfaced since fiscal year 2016.
This does not include the addition of any alternate streets.
The primary streets that will be reconstructed in portions include:
• Creek Woods Drive
• Sugar Creek Court
• Sugar Creek Drive
• Violet Street
• Waver Street
• Ritter Street
• Mays Street
• Edwards Street
• John Martin Street
• Cassell Street
• Pinecrest Street
• Lowry Avenue
• Moody Avenue
• Gilchrist Street
• Palmer Street
• Roux Street
• Saunders Street
• Tomlin Street
• Calhoun Street
• Damon Street
• Center Street
• Willis Street
• Kipling Avenue
• Longfellow Drive
• Stevenson Street
• Clemens Court
• Emerson Place
The city commission passed the proposed streets unanimously by a vote of 5-0.
New Gilchrist Park playground
The city commission also approved the installation of a new playground at Gilchrist Park, after the former had been taken down.
The first was built in 1997, and over time its condition rendered it unusable. Among the damages were rust, broken chain links and ladders as well as a drainage issue that has since been repaired.
“After being observed and evaluated by a certified playground safety inspector, we saw that this playground was no longer compliant with our standards,” said Julie Garretson, director of the Parks and Recreation Department. “Once this was deemed unsafe, we had to remove it in 2021.”
The new recreation spot will include a grip-free saddle spinner and instrumentation such as drums, chimes and bells, as well as a we-saw – a seesaw made for four people. Several obstacle courses included with slides and steps will be sheltered under shade coverings.
There are also plans to install multiple stations on the playground as well. All these amenities will be placed upon a smooth, rubber-padded floor which will be ADA accessible.
The playground will also be equipped with a swing set which includes a friendship swing – which allows two users. This will be stationed on ground that will be made up of a mulch-like material.
Green will be the thematic color of the recreation spot, with a variety of different shades.
“This is another example of how we’re just trying to raise the bar and take things to another level,” McDaniel said. “It adds a whole other dimension to the playground experience.”
The $288,565.50 project does not have an official start date as of yet, but the installation will take approximately 24 weeks, Garretson said.
