Several roads in Penn Hills will undergo maintenance beginning next month as council members approved more than $850,000 in road repair work last week.
Work is scheduled to begin in mid-August and includes paving some roads and repairing others, municipal leaders said.
Roads set to be paved include Dollman Road, Azalea Drive (partial), Curtis Street, Curtis Street West, Oren Street (partial), Loretta Drive, Highland Drive, Springwood Drive, Friar Drive, Treona Drive, Knoll Drive, Swale Drive, Old Barn Drive, Crescent Gardens Drive (partial), Eastwood Road (partial), Sage Drive, Althea Drive (partial), Colgan Terrace and Banyon Drive.
The municipality will use A. Folino Construction Inc. of Oakmont for paving at a cost of $796,792 for the project.
The other contract covers double-chip and seal repairs — a less expensive alternative to paving that is geared toward preserving roads, leaders said.
Roads undergoing chip and seal repairs include South McCulley Drive and Old William Penn Highway from Thompson Run Road to Sunset Drive.
Both bids came in lower than Gateway Engineers “mainly because of the price of oil (a main ingredient in asphalt),” public works Superintendent Gerry Nosal said. “(Prices for contract estimates) reflected on asphalt prices. The asphalt costs less to produce.”
Tresco Paving Co. of Plum will perform repair work for $61,000.
Mayor Sara Kuhn said the double-chip seal method saves taxpayers' money and can give the road a longer life.
Kuhn also said that the original budget was slated for $1 million in paving and about $200,000 in patching, leaving a little more than $341,000 left over after fulfilling the contracts.
With the absence of municipal Manager Mohammed Rayan, it wasn't made clear if the municipality will pave more roads with the left over funds.
Samson X Horne is a Tribune-Review staff writer. He can be reached at 412-320-7845 or shorne@tribweb.com.
