The Lubbock Street Department is taking advantage of the triple digit temperatures and beginning summer road repairs.
“The heat of the summer is when these projects work best for equipment,” Public Works Superintendent Mike Gilliland said. “I know it’s hard on the guys because we’re talking 350-400-degree asphalt products … and it’s already 102-degrees outside. It’s hard work on those guys, but they keep at it and make our streets better.”
Gilliland said because of the harsh winter, water got into tiny cracks in the asphalt, causing it to crack. Fixing pot holes was a big project for the Street Department in the last few months.
“Winter time snow and water will get into that cracking and it turn it to ice and expand,” Gilliland said. “It opens up the cracks more, so more water can get in.”
Gilliland said that repairs the city is making this summer are to prepare for an even bigger project that will start next year.
“We’re actually doing repairs to the asphalt and concrete, so that those streets are in good shape and we’ll put a new surface on them,” Gilliland said. “That way that surface will last another seven-to-ten years.”
Gilliland said construction will be off-and-on, but some of the major areas they are working on are 50th and the Interstate, 42nd and Quaker and Upland Avenue.
