(Riverton, WY) – Certain areas in Riverton are scheduled for the 2024 Pavement Slurry Seal Project, which is tentatively scheduled to commence at the beginning of August.
The Public Works Department and American Pavement Preservation hosted a public meeting at Riverton City Hall on Wednesday, May 1. The meeting included pertinent information about the areas in the city that will be affected by the project, as well as the contractor’s schedule and expected timeframe for the roads to be sealed. The project includes approximately 116,000 square yards of asphalt Type II slurry seal to be placed on residential and collector streets.
Project Timeline: What to expect…
The project is tentatively scheduled to begin on August 1st, with the work to be conducted Monday through Friday between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Access to homes will be limited between these times. The contractor will provide communications regarding access 5 days before, and then again 24 hours prior to slurry being placed on the street.
“Residents quite often think that they won’t see anyone on their street at 7:30 in the morning and think nothing’s going to happen,” said John Jennings, contractor with American Pavement Preservation. “But we do 8-10 streets per day or more, so we’re not on every street first thing in the morning at the same time.”
Several steps and preps will go into motion before the streets are slurried and sealed. Traffic control crews will set up at the end of the streets, taping off manholes and valves, cleaning and sweeping, and a street sweeper will come through to sweep. Residents are asked to think ahead as they go to work during business hours.
“Especially if they leave for work at 8:00 or 8:30,” Jennings said. “They might be the first street getting slurry sealed…we usually leave a bit of an opening, but then whatever time of the day the crew gets there to actually slurry seal the street, it will be completely closed off and there will be no in or out access for the period that the slurry dries.”
Ribbons will mark off the closed streets, with an estimated time of the streets reopening by around 5:00-6:00 p.m. at the end of the day. “So when residents don’t see something happening first thing in the morning, they shouldn’t think that it’s been canceled or it’s not going to happen.”
Trash pick-up, weather and vehicles on the street…
“If it’s your trash day and we have scheduled your street, we communicate with the trash company and get them to come early and pick up the trash,” Jennings said. “So you can help out by having trash out early.”
“As we get closer to construction, the contractor will provide a one-week notice,” said Riverton City Engineer Brendan Thoman. “We’ll also have maps on the city’s Facebook page and website. If there are any changes, we’ll be able to notify the public as the project goes on.”
Weather is also another potential factor that could impact the project. In case of rain or any weather events, the work on the street will be rescheduled.
“One big thing is that we want all vehicles, campers…everything off of the street,” Jennings added. “That’s a big, big deal. What messes us up the worst are things still on the street. They literally have to go around it and don’t treat the area where the vehicle sits.”
In the case of abandoned vehicles, “The plan is to work with the police department ahead of schedule,” said Public Works Director Brian Eggleston. “If they’re abandoned, they’ll be tagged…if they’re not moved, they will be impounded.”
Businesses, school zones, and transportation…
Jennings said that although the timeframes are not rock solid, they really try to target Monday through Friday and avoid work on the weekends.
“A lot depends on what happens with weather and different schedules,” he said. “The City prefers us not to work on Saturday…the only time we really need to concentrate on weekend work is when it affects businesses that are open during the week. Sometimes, we have to schedule streets on the weekend to accommodate businesses.”
“The one area close to the school…we talked about doing that first and getting that out of the way before any kind of traffic comes in that area more heavily,” said Thoman. “There are certain streets where this works well. It doesn’t work well on every street; some streets need an overlay. Some streets have been pulled up and repaired. With a slurry seal, there are certain streets that we target. We hope that this is a continuing project, and just because a person’s street is not done this year doesn’t mean it will never be done.”
Some of the streets we look at just aren’t suitable beyond this type of treatment doing much good,” Eggleston added. “They’ll be pretty and black for a while, but there’s other problems that we need to fix with different strategies.”
Phone numbers will be provided on the notices for residents to call if they have any questions or concerns, including those who rely on transportation to and from doctor’s appointments.
“We sometimes get calls from disabled residents where they need some assistance or information,” said Priscilla Gomez. “We can help them with that.”
FORCC Funds at Work
The slurry seal project is one of five FORCC projects this year, with funding derived by the one-cent sales tax. Slurry sealing is an alternative to chip sealing, and lasts about as long. It covers the street and protects it from UV and wear on certain sides of the street.
“It goes on very quickly,” said City Engineer Brendan Thoman. “It’s pretty impressive, the product that you get with the amount of time. It’s clean, done in a day…even now the crews are going out and finding spots that are uneven and they’re fixing those ahead of time for when the street is actually sealed.”
Three more FORCC projects will be the topic of discussion at a public meeting on Wednesday, June 26 at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers. The College View and N. Major Improvement Project, the Concrete Replacement Project, and the Arapaho Drive Improvement Project are on the agenda. For more information, call 307-856-3687 or visit the City’s website or Facebook page for information and updates.