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This winter will not be remembered kindly for the toll it has taken on Liberty’s streets.

“It’s been terrible, and it’s not over yet,” Public Works Director Steve Hansen said. “Nearly every street that hasn’t been newly overlaid has potholes and cracks.”

What makes it more challenging is there is still well more than a month of winter left.

“Any more freeze-and-thaw cycles and it’s only going to get worse,” he said.

Hansen said the situation is made even more challenging by the limited repairs street crews can make with cold patch asphalt, which are only short-term solutions at best.

“The next time it freezes, that cold patch is going to pop right out,” he said. “We’re going to have to wait until the asphalt plants open this spring to make permanent repairs.”

He said public works would also seek assistance from contractors this year to fill potholes and undertake crack sealing, using a significant portion of the city’s 2010 overlay budget for the repairs.

The public works director said with the current condition of the streets, there is just too much work for the city’s crews do on their own.

Assistant City Administrator Dan Estes said the 2010 budget provides for close to $828,000 to do street overlay work and repairs.

The funding will come from three sources, primarily the capital sales tax.

“We’ve got to get back to where we need to be now or we never will,” Hansen said. “We can’t afford to wait any longer.”

He stressed the importance of sealing the streets through the repairs, preventing further deterioration that comes when moisture reaches the subsurface and then breaks apart the pavement through freeze-and-thaw cycles.

“If we can get this done, next winter shouldn’t be so bad,” Hansen said.

There is a budgetary aspect to the work as well.

“You get a lot of bang for your buck,” he said, citing the higher costs of having to reconstruct streets.

ON A BRIGHTER NOTE

Where the harsh winter conditions left their mark on the city’s streets, Public Works Director Steve Hansen said the deep snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day proved beneficial, providing an insulating blanket for the city’s water lines, minimizing breaks from freeze-and-thaw cycles.

Senior writer Mark Johnson can be reached at 781-4941 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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