ONEONTA _ Milling and repaving Main Street is under consideration by the Common Council only three years after similar work was completed.
The cost of the work on Main Street between Elm and Chestnut streets is expected to be about $170,000 or $175,000, Mayor John Nader said Wednesday.
The Common Council voted Tuesday to authorize city Purchasing Agent Edith Polhamus to go out to bid for milling and paving work on portions of five streets _ Main Street, North Seventh Street, River Street Service Road, Union Street and Reynolds Avenue. Milling is the removal by machine of the top layer of pavement.
Main Street was the subject of a milling and paving project in 2005 that involved the removal of 11/2 inches of existing pavement.
That was a $367,886 project that also included drainage, curbing and sidewalk work. The city paid 20 percent with the remainder coming through federal highway funding administered by the state.
But last winter, the pavement began showing signs of erosion, including grooves a foot wide that stretched 100 feet or more.
The city spent about $5,300 to have an outside company test the pavement on Main Street to determine why the pavement, which was expected to last between six and eight years, began failing after less than three years.
Mayor Nader said test results show that although the material used in the paving had passed Department of Transportation specifications, it was responsible for the deterioration.
"There seems to have been some compaction problems with the previous work," Nader said.
Nader said there have been some preliminary conversations with Main Street Oneonta, a downtown merchants group, about performing the milling and paving sometime in the fall, possibly October.
The project would involved milling the existing pavement to a depth of 11/2 to 2 inches and then repaving the street, Nader said.
Main Street sees an average of 12,000 vehicles a day, according to the DOT.
Officials with Cobleskill Stone Products, the company that performed the 2005 work, previously said the failure of the pavement was due to problems with the subgrade, or area beneath the pavement.
City Engineering Administrator Joseph Bernier previously said subgrade work was done on Main Street about 20 years ago, so similar work was not built into the 2005 project.
However, Fourth Ward Alderman Mike Lynch, a member of the Streets, Parklands and Public Works Committee, said Wednesday he has not seen a report on the testing of Main Street and was unaware that the testing was completed.
Lynch said he is concerned that if more substantial work is needed _ such as subgrade work _ then the city may end up spending more money on repairing Main Street again in a few years.
"How can we possibly go forward with anything without those results," Lynch said. "We were told all along that getting those results was very important."
Aldermen should have seen those test results before voting, he said.
Lynch, who cast the lone vote against going out to bid for the five streets, said his vote was the result of seeing his committee approve one set of streets during its last meeting, but having the actual motion voted on by aldermen including some different streets.
Lynch said he did not understand how the list of streets changed from the time it left committee to the time it went before the Common Council. He did not specify the changes.
Fifth Ward Alderman Rodger Moran, chairman of the committee, said at Tuesday night's meeting the list was likely changed by Bernier after the committee meeting.
"The answer we got last night was totally unacceptable," Lynch said.
Moran said there were more streets on that list, but he said he trusts the judgment of the engineering department to prioritize the list in terms of what the city can afford.
"I'm not feeling like the wheel is broken," Moran. "But I know that there are members of the committee that feel that way."
Bernier did not immediately return calls for comment placed to his home and office Wednesday.
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