Workers with Ankeny-based Des Moines Asphalt and Paving, a wing of OMG Midwest, started laying fresh asphalt along First Avenue in Perry Wednesday as part of a contract with the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) that will also include converting Iowa Highway 144 to a three-lane roadway through Perry.
The repaving and lane-reconfiguration project is wholly financed by state funds and is costing Perry taxpayers zero dollars.
Motorists are urged to seek a different route while construction proceeds on First Avenue and to use caution when passing through the area and be alert for traffic-control devices
Attention will return to the ongoing resurfacing of some 60 blocks of side streets in Perry later n the summer. Financing for the 60-block HMA project will come from two sources: local option sales tax (LOST) revenues will cover about $860,000 of the cost. The remaining $155,000 will be paid by road use tax funds.
Perry’s LOST was passed by voters in 2010 and renewed in 2017.
