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Franklin Board backs 2025 Local Road and Street Program featuring Drexel Avenue work
Summary
The Franklin City Board of Public Works voted to support the proposed 2025 Local Road and Street Program, which prioritizes removing concrete on Drexel Avenue and replacing it with asphalt and leaves a secondary segment on 35th Street as a backup if funds allow.
The Franklin City Board of Public Works voted Jan. 14 to support the proposed 2025 Local Road and Street Program, which prioritizes reconstruction along Drexel Avenue and a secondary segment on 35th Street if budget permits.
Board members approved a motion supporting the program after presentations about the scope and pending geotechnical work. The board’s action was procedural support to allow the project to proceed to bidding and to align with the common council authorization sheets already prepared for the project.
Why it matters: The program would replace existing concrete sections on Drexel Avenue with an asphalt pavement structure and could consume a large portion of the department’s 2025 resurfacing funds. The plan anticipates substantial undercutting in wet sections, and the city is completing soil borings to confirm existing pavement and subgrade conditions and to refine quantities and unit needs before finalizing bid documents.
Board staff described the Drexel scope as running “approximately from the 6100 block of Drexel east to the roundabout,” then resuming on the east side of the roundabout and continuing east to “approximately the 3700 block” (transcript). The work described would remove the existing concrete and replace it with an asphalt section, described in the meeting as about 6 inches of pavement (notation in the presentation: “6 inches of asphalt 4 and 2”). A backup segment on 35th Street — between Woodward and Southland — was identified if bid results and available funds permit.
City engineer Mike Paulus and the highway superintendent reported Terracon is under contract for geotechnical borings along the Drexel route to determine concrete thickness and subgrade conditions. The consultant expected to begin borings within about a week to 10 days and to deliver boring logs and a soil report in roughly three weeks.
Board members asked whether the project would use the full local-road budget. Staff said the city has approximately $2,200,000 set aside and that current estimates indicate the work is expected to be within that amount; however, undercutting triggered by poor subgrade could require later decisions about scope and quantities.
Formal action: Jim Witt moved to support the 2025 Local Road and Street Program; David Wisnicki seconded. The board voted in favor; the motion carried.
Next steps: The city will complete soil borings and return to the Board of Public Works as needed with a recommended bid package and, later, a contract recommendation once bids are opened.
