Sealing cracks in city streets is a must to preserve those streets, but Great Bend’s efforts have lagged, Great Bend City Administrator Kendal Francis told the City Council Monday night.  To bolster this effort, the council approved a bid from Circle C Pavers, Goddard, to tackle a portion of street crack sealing work not to exceed $50,000.  

“Crack sealing is one of the most important parts of a street maintenance program so we can prolong the life of our pavement,” he said. But, “honestly, it is something that has not happened here in Great Bend in the last couple of years.”

So, “it is something that we are moving forward on to get caught up,” he said.

City crews are in the process of doing some crack sealing in house, Francis said. “But, quite frankly, we don’t have the manpower to catch up to what has been deferred.”

Now, the idea is to contract approximately a fourth or fifth of the city. The goal is to be in a cycle where every five years the entire city would be crack sealed.

“But, the thing is to get caught up so that city crews can then move forward and keep ahead of it,” he said. 

With that in mind, the city sought bids, and three were received. Circle C had the lowest bid. 

Such works is calculated based on the pounds of material used and price per pound determines the cost. Circle C came in at $1.74 per pound for the product and application.

“This was a little bit higher than we had anticipated,” he said. They had solicited bids for 40,000 pounds and that totaled between $71-72,000.

“This was higher than our budget could stand,” he said. “So we went back to Circle C to talk about a reduction in scope knowing that we had to be closer to the $50,000 mark.”

The contractor agreed to hold the price the same, even though the project was now smaller. The city was worried that the company would raise the cost since less material was involved.

The work will likely start by the end of November. The completion depends on the weather, but it should be done by year’s end.

The target area is the “presidential” streets south of Broadway and west of McKinley all the way to Patton Road. If material is still available, work will move to the other side of McKinley north towards Harrison, headed to 24th.

“At the same time, we will still continue with city crews,” he said. This will be in the Amber Meadows and northwest part of town.

“Our focus will be the asphalt streets,” he said. The concrete streets will be left for Circle C.

For now, this is a one-time deal, Francis said of the contract. But, despite hopes this will get things caught up, a future contract may be required. 

“The city can take it from there,” he said. He praised the Public Works Department Street Division for the strides it has made and all its “important work.”

The city has one crack-sealing machine.