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DuPont studies six‑year transportation plan; staff favors chip‑seal for some collector streets
Summary
City staff presented a draft six‑year Transportation Improvement Program focused on grant readiness and preservation projects. Center Drive Phase 4A/4B is funded to start in June; staff proposed lower‑cost chip‑seal treatments for several collector roads and flagged roundabout geometry problems for large moving trucks.
City staff presented the draft six‑year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) during a council study session and asked the council to confirm priorities for grant applications and future capital work.
Gus Lim walked through the plan and said the TIP is primarily a planning tool to support grant applications. He noted that Center Drive Phase 4A/4B was awarded Transportation Improvement Board funding and is scheduled to begin construction June 15. Lim said the capital list remains heavily focused on preservation and that most items in the current draft are unfunded and staged out in later years to reflect likely matching requirements.
Lim reviewed several specific projects and issues councilors raised: a grind‑and‑overlay remaining segment on Center Drive (Phase V), a federally classified grind and overlay segment on Wilmington Drive, and a proposed chip‑seal preservation program for collector roads as a cost‑effective alternative. He gave a rough estimate that grind‑and‑overlay pavement work runs about $500,000 per mile for a single lane (approaching $1 million per mile for a four‑lane corridor), and described chip‑seal (double chip plus slurry coat) as a lower‑cost option that can add roughly 10 years of life to a roadway.
Lim also discussed Barksdale Avenue, which is built in concrete panels; he said the city must decide whether to preserve the concrete deck or add an asphalt overlay, noting each choice has different life‑cycle and repair implications. He showed an AutoTurn analysis that flagged turn paths for long moving trucks at several roundabouts (Ridgeview, Patriots Landing, the Clock Tower area and Hoffman Hill) and proposed geometric adjustments (shrinking the inner mountable curb and widening the outer apron) to reduce wheel ruts and sidewalk impacts.
Council members asked staff to spell out acronyms (PE vs CN) in the project tables, to add a few roundabouts to the priority list and to return with full project tables and maps. Lim said he will provide a table that expands acronyms and cost columns and will bring an updated TIP and public hearing materials at the next council meeting.
Why it matters: The TIP sets which projects become grant‑eligible and in what order the city will pursue funding. The council’s decisions about pavement preservation methods (grind & overlay vs. chip‑seal) and roundabout geometry will influence near‑term maintenance budgets and grant applications.
