City construction crews have begun work on a small stretch of Third Avenue between the west side of the Hill County Courthouse and the entry side of Stockman Bank.
On Wednesday, an excavator operator was tearing up and digging out the old cracked concrete to clear away and make room for the new. By the end of the day, 5 to 6 yards of concrete had been dug out and the area blocked off.
Today, workers should start pouring concrete, Havre Public Works Director Dave Peterson said. Once that is done, the area will need an additional seven days to dry.
The problem with the old pavement — it had settled — developed after a water main break flooded the street a few years back, Peterson said Wednesday. The city prioritizes street repairs based on which streets are the worst. This segment made the list now.
Since city workers are doing the labor, the city only paid for the concrete, which Peterson estimated, cost between $500 and $600.
Havre’s cracked and pothole-riddled streets and sidewalks have been the subject of two recent campaigns in which the city asked taxpayers to pass mill levies that would pay for citywide street and sidewalk repairs. The latest levy would have cost $15 million over 20 years. That was voted down November 2017, despite its cost being half of a what taxpayers turned down two years before.
In 2015, taxpayers voted down a $30-million mill levy street and sidewalk proposal.
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