MANSFIELD — The Richland County Engineer’s Office will spend $2.27 million to improve the conditions of county roads in 2024.
Richland County commissioners on Tuesday awarded a $638,741 contract to Sarver Paving of Ashland to put new hot asphalt down on nearly five miles of county roads by the end of the summer.
Those contracts are on top of earlier deals awarded to Earthworm Construction from Iberia to use a cold-constructed asphalt paving process on 10.2 miles of county roads for $737,149 and $851,270, also to Sarver, to chip-and-seal almost 30 miles of roads.
In each of the three projects, the contractors selected submitted the lowest bids for the work, according to county Engineer Adam Gove.
With the contract awarded Tuesday, all three legs of the county’s 2024 resurfacing efforts have been awarded, Gove said.
In a cost comparison among the three techniques being utilized locally, hot asphalt averages $127,748 per mile, compared to $72,269 per mile for the cold asphalt treatment and $28,856 per mile for chip-and-seal work.
Gove said he was pleased with the prices, including the hot asphalt that came in about $23,000 less than his estimate.
Other bids for the hot asphalt work were received from Shelly & Sands ($693,918) and Kokosing Construction ($759,687).
“Overall, (resurfacing) prices seem to be holding fairly stable to last year,” the engineer said.
Roads scheduled to be resurfaced in the hot asphalt program are:
— Cairns Road
— A portion of Marion Avenue Road, from Lexington-Springmill Road to the City of Mansfield limits.
— The Cook Road extension from the City of Mansfield limits to the roundabout.
“Marion Avenue Road and Cook Road are some of our busiest roads,” Gove said. “Cairns is getting busier and we are seeing more truck traffic as more is built up at the industrial park (near Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport.)”
