Video: Road Maintenance Work Ahead Of Schedule Due To Warm Weather

TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) – Public works crews and workers with APAC have been busy since springtime, repairing potholes, carrying out maintenance and on this day, performing milling and overlay work on St. Andrews Drive.

“We come in and take out about two inches of asphalt, we mill out all the bad stuff, go in there and actually dig up all the soft spot, where you see all the potholes and ruts coming up, we take that out and put new material in there, and new material on top of it and it’s a new road, basically,” said Chuck Williams, who  is director of Public Works. His department oversees the city’s annual maintenance program, which repairs streets.

The work is paid for through the city’s capital fund.

Entire roads aren’t replaced, but only those parts where repairs are needed.

“We’re doing that a little more often to try and make our funds go further and our asphalt go further,” Williams said.

Work will soon start on a stretch of Varsity Drive, right off of South Gloster. This project wasn’t even supposed to be on the books until next year, but the unseasonably warm weather has put everything ahead of schedule.

“We usually cut this off , around Halloween, but sometimes it doesn’t go that far because the rainy season sets in , so September a lot of times is our ending point, but right now, we’re hoping to go all the way through Thanksgiving, if it will let us,” he said.

As soon as maintenance work wraps this year, Williams and his crew will drive every street in the city, putting together a list of needed repairs for next year.

Also, Public Works has been given money to help with maintenance for roads in the Major Thoroughfare Program.