WILLCOX — The city has announced a schedule of maintenance to be performed on city streets and roads during the 2023 summer months.
A wet winter worsened road conditions throughout the city. Crews will fill potholes and seal roadways starting now, with some work lasting the remainder of the year.
Cochise Avenue and parts of Grant Street will be milled, lime treated, chip sealed and fog sealed.
Maley Street will get chip and fog sealed only.
Shoulder work will be done on Delos Street between Bisbee and Arizona, and at parts of Pearce Street between Bisbee and Arizona using a hot mix asphalt in some areas along with the lime treat.
The intersection of Grant and Curtis by the Post Office and parts of the intersection at Austin Boulevard and Maley will also get the hot mix asphalt and lime treat.
Concrete aprons will be added at Maley and Bowie, then at Maley and Cochise.
City crews will do all the chip and fog sealing, and potholes throughout the city will be filled as needed.
The Arizona Department of Transportation is expected to begin construction on Rex Allen Drive and Haskell Avenue later this year.
KE&G Construction of Sierra Vista has already mobilized in Willcox and will submit bids on plans to pave North Arizona and Bowie avenues between Scott Street and Rex Allen Drive.
These are high traffic corridors and paving will last longer into the year. Additional bids for construction/paving are being considered.
The city is awaiting a soil study report which will include recommendations for base improvements to Ironwood.
Bowman consulting firm, which has several Arizona locations, has designed a system for the city to drain and pump storm water to a nearby sump to prevent new potholes from forming once the road is chip sealed.
This construction is estimated to begin this fall or spring of 2024.
After bidding the city also selected Bowman as the engineer to design sidewalk, drainage, and other road improvements.
Its engineering report will be completed this summer, at which time city staff will consider bids for construction of sidewalk and concrete aprons.
City crews will chip seal Ironwood after concrete repairs.
“We have about $6 million in capital projects that we’re doing with the city,” City Manager Caleb Blaschke said. “A lot of those are grant funded, and they include parks, infrastructure, roads, and buildings.
“We’re trying to keep as much of that as local as possible, so we’re always hitting up our local contractors first to make sure they have an opportunity to bid on the projects we have.”
More than $5.5 million of the funds will be used for upgrading Rex Allen Drive and Haskell Avenue.
Arizona Legislative District 19 Sen. David Gowan was instrumental in Willcox being put on the cue for funding, according to the city manager.
“We’re going to be redoing Haskell and Rex Allen Drive this year, along with that a lot of the sidewalks are going to be improved along those roads, in the street frontage, so it’s really going to clean up our community,” Blaschke said. “It’s going to look nice when people are driving through.”
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