Williamsburg officials unsure how much South Second Street road repair will cost

The City of Williamsburg would have liked to have been doing some sidewalk repair work in recent weeks, but instead has been busy dealing with flooding and other water-related street issues.

A very old collapsed road culvert that was 25-feet deep caused the closure of a portion of South Second Street in Williamsburg for nearly one week.

Mayor Roddy Harrison informed the Williamsburg City Council during its monthly meeting Monday that the city recently had to make flooding repairs to the Briar Creek Bridge, the First Street Bridge, Incline Drive and at Woodlawn Creek. All the projects have been approved to receive FEMA funding to help cover the costs of the repairs.

The cost of these four repairs was under $30,000.

Harrison said that the city is also dealing with two much more significant repairs in the Mt. Morgan area, which are expected to cost in excess of $100,000 to repair. Buses and garbage trucks can’t be run in those areas until repairs are made.

The city has also been dealing with a road repair on a portion of South Second Street that partially closed the road due to a partial collapse on Aug. 5. The road opened back up Monday.

Harrison said that an excavator had to dig down 25 feet before discovering the problem, which was a collapsed very old box type tile apparently made from rock.

The city originally thought the project was only going to cost about $11,000, but that is no longer the case.

“I don’t know what it is going to be now,” Harrison added. “It is going to be an expensive fix.”

The city will be applying for Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Emergency Municipal Road Aid funds to help cover those repairs. These emergency funds have been used in prior years for repairs to the bridges at Briar Creek Park and the bridge on George Hays Road.

Harrison said that this portion of the road probably wouldn’t be repaved until spring.

In addition, Harrison also updated the council on the status of a pothole repair project that has identified 35-40 potholes or small road repairs that need to be done.

The repair project will be done in three phases.

The first phase of the project is projected to cost about $11,000 and includes about a dozen potholes or small road repairs.

“Folks, we have a bunch of them,” Harrison noted of the potholes, but he added that not many roads in the city in need to be paved or repaved at this time.

However, the roads that need repaving will need to be milled first, which involves removing the old blacktop before the new blacktop is laid. This will add to the cost of those projects.