The Snyder City Council learned during Monday’s meeting that reworking all the city’s streets would carry a hefty price tag.
Roy Wright, from Jacob and Martin, did an analysis of the roughly 95 miles of streets within the city system and said to bring the surfaces up to acceptable driving condition and maintenance levels would cost about $30.5 million.
He recommended the city take small steps each year to implement a maintenance program, including seal coating, surface sealing and treating street surfaces with herbicide, that would cover all the streets on a rotating basis.
“Do what you can every year and keep that up,” Wright said.
The city already spends about $300,000 each year on such a program, according to Snyder City Manager Merle Taylor.
Wright said he studied 50 cores taken from around the city and found that almost every street has a “very fine base material.”
Part of the $30.5 million price tag includes replacing that base material.
“A majority of the roadways we cored had a very fine-graded base material,” he said. “It’s a really small rock, meaning it doesn’t provide the support that larger rocks would give it. It’s going to be hard to do something with it unless you aggressively stabilize it.”
Wright said he did not prioritize projects. He evaluated each street and recommended a course of action for each, ranging from surface sealing the street, which would be the least expensive route and require the least amount of work, to rebuilding with concrete.
The recommendations did not necessarily include upgrades, like different surfaces, curbs or gutters for any roads.
Snyder Mayor Tony Wofford said it was the council’s job to prioritize the street projects.
“We need to figure out where we’re going to start by asking ourselves ‘Where are the most critical needs,’” he said.