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Construction begins Thursday morning on Sea Street in City Point.
Phase 1 of the milling and paving projects, which covers 51 streets on the west side of New Haven.
City crews started bright and early Thursday morning and milling paving Sea Street, the first of 51 roadways set to receive smoother surfaces over the next six weeks — and faster than in the past.
Mayor Justin Elicker, Hill Alder Carmen Rodriguez, and other city officials came together at the intersection of Sea and Howard Avenue to mark the moment and speak about how the process has been improved.
The work is budgeted at $3 million, a mix of local and state funds. Phase one is set to last through July and cover the west side. Phase two will follow and cover the east side. The city is watching rising prices before settling on details for phase two.
“One of the most common requests that I receive when I’m knocking on doors around the city is [that] people want their roads and sidewalks fixed,” said Elicker. “People want their streets paved.”
According to Public Works Director Jeff Pescosolido, the city is working with contracting and material companies to keep costs at a minimum. He cited rising labor and petroleum prices, which can affect trucking and asphalt costs.
Last year saw extended lags in between the milling and paving of roads. This year the city has contracted asphalt in bulk to ensure that paving will occur within a week of milling, officials said.
Yash Roy file photo
Director of Parks and Public Works Jeff Pescosolido inspects the site Thursday morning
“Pavers are in high demand,” said Pescosolido. “They’re not too many vendors out there that can supply that commodity to the municipalities and batch that material. So we purchased it from local vendors who batch the asphalt and we try to line them up as well behind us. We try to keep that window very narrow.
“Last year, we had some difficulties due to a short supply of pavers. This year, the paving company is going to be right behind us. We believe next week, this street will be paved.”
Sea Street wasn’t chosen as the first street of this summer’s project by accident. The city uses a pavement condition index to assign a numerical value to every street of the city based on its current condition, amount of traffic carried, as well as its location near schools and emergency services. The information is then brought to the Resource Allocation Committee, which consists of city engineers and officials as well as alders. The committee decides the order of the projects and when the work begins.
Yash Roy photo
City Engineer Giovanni Zinn and Sandeep Aysola, director of the Department of Traffic, Transportation & Parking.
Celebrating the work that is beginning in her ward, Alder Rodriguez said that the work will improve the quality of life for her constituents.
“This means a lot of residents,” said Rodriguez. “They’re going to be able to drive down a beautiful paved road and this will help improve the aesthetics of the community.”
The city plans on releasing the list of streets in the second phase of this project in the coming weeks.
On behalf of my neighborhood (Truman St area) I would like to thank Alder Evelyn Rodriguez for advocating to have much needed work done in our neighborhood (Clover, Eddy & Barclay). We also thank all other City officials who contributed to this effort to look at the Hill neighborhoods and not just the Yale Med School/Hospital area. It is good to see quality of life issues addressed. Hopefully this can become ‘the rule’ and not ‘the exception’!