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Public Works recommends prioritizing Flankers and Metcalfe for resurfacing; board authorizes follow-up
Summary
Forest Park’s newly introduced Public Works director presented a pavement assessment of Fort Gillum roads, recommending prioritizing Flankers and Metcalfe with an estimated cost of about $1.2 million; resurfacing all assessed roads was estimated at roughly $7.7 million.
Alton Matthews, Forest Park’s new public works director, presented a pavement condition assessment for roads in the Fort Gillum area and recommended prioritizing resurfacing work on Flankers and Metcalfe roads.
Matthews reviewed common pavement distress types — including alligator cracking, block cracking and reflective cracking — and explained that alligator cracking typically indicates a need for full reconstruction rather than a surface overlay. He said consultants had taken 49 cores across six roads to assess pavement build-up and subbase conditions and that most roads showed aging or localized cracking, while Flankers showed the most severe distresses, including alligator cracking.
Matthews reported an overall estimate to resurface all assessed roads of roughly $7.7 million and recommended prioritizing Flankers and Metcalf (Metcalfe) as the highest priority. He told the URA that limiting initial work to the top two priority streets would reduce the board’s near-term out-of-pocket cost to about $1.2 million using a two-inch mill-and-overlay approach, while noting that reflective cracking could reappear and that deeper repairs or full-depth reclamation would increase costs.
Board members asked whether in-house Public Works could perform the work; Matthews said the scale and equipment needs meant the city would need to engage independent contractors. The URA recorded a motion to proceed with next steps (to transmit information to staff and pursue procurement options), which passed unanimously.
Matthews said the recommended initial approach would mill two inches and replace two inches of topping where appropriate; he also described alternative techniques such as open-graded mixes and full-depth reclamation for more durable solutions where pavement depth and structural issues warrant them.
The board did not approve large-scale funding at the meeting but authorized staff to move forward with procuring options and to return with formal cost and schedule proposals.
