Preventative maintenance work for city streets will extend into the fall throughout the City of Howell.

The Howell City Council met on Monday night and approved some additional crack sealing work for road surfaces that will be done before the winter hits. The method of treatment applies sealant into the cracks formed on the road surface, which prevents water intrusion and the resulting compromising of the roadway due to freeze-thaw cycles. Officials say crack sealing of road surfaces at the proper time can prolong the life of pavement five years or longer than roads that are not treated.

City Manager Shea Charles tells WHMI they were able to complete a lot of the work this spring and went up to what was budgeted. However he says the contractor held their price from the spring into this fall, and that was part of a bid cooperative between the City of Howell, the Village of Milford and the City of Wixom. Charles says since they had multiple communities bidding on it, they were able to get some really great pricing – well below what the City had seen previously. He says the contractor has agreed to maintain that price through the fall so they’ll be out conditioning up the rest of roads.

A memo noted that the contractor performed satisfactorily and no resident complaints were received by Howell DPS. The City is required to operate a Pavement Asset Management Plan as part of Act 51 funding. The City currently rates roads using a PASER method and inputs that data into a program. The system uses a rating scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being poor and 10 being excellent, to help determine the proper treatment of maintenance for prolonging life of the road. That data is then sent to SEMCOG and the State of Michigan for review and approval. (JM)