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$22,410 a Mile - Navasota finds
a way to transform its city
 By
Jeff Hawk
 When
challenges arise, there are those who cry "no can do"
and those who proclaim "we'll find the best way!" The
City of Navasota, population 6,296, falls into the latter category.
Equipped with a very limited budget, minimal labor force and scarce
equipment resources, city officials found a way to transform the
city's severely deteriorating asphalt streets into durable, drivable
roadways.
A
city street committee determined that the most cost-effective process
for rebuilding streets involved stabilizing them with cement and
then topping them with a chip seal, says Gary Johnson, Navasota's
public works director.
"You've
got to take the first step," says Johnson. "We developed
an organized method to solve the problem." The process involves
pulverizing the existing asphalt surface and granular base and mixing
it to a depth of 6 inches with 4 percent cement to form a new bonded
base.
 "We're
trying to get everything stabilized and sealed. Later, we'll come
back and add an asphalt surface," says Ron Akin, Navasota's
street superintendent.
Johnson
and Akin established a system of prioritizing streets for recycling
and then started knocking them out. In just three years, city crews
have completed nearly 220,000 square yards of city streets using
the process. Last summer alone crews completed 93,000 square yards,
or roughly 8 miles of 20-foot wide streets during a 20-day, 8-hour-a-day
work period. By 2004, says Akin, city crews will have recycled all
the city's damaged asphalt streets.
And
they will have done it on a shoestring budget. Johnson figures the
city spent about $22,410 a mile this summer on road materials including
cement and chip seal supplies and placement. The city rented a CMI
pulverizer from R.B. Everett & Co. in Pasadena to speed the
process along, but otherwise used city equipment and crews.
With
each year, says Akin, crews learned better ways to do things in
less time. Compared to complete reconstruction, recycling with cement
is a lot simpler and "a lot faster," adds Akin. "And
we get more bang for our buck."
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