Perry residents will soon have smoother streets to drive on as preliminary work starts this week on the 60-block hot mix asphalt (HMA) resurfacing project, slated for completion this summer.
The Perry City Council awarded the contract Feb. 18 to OMG Midwest-Des Moines Asphalt and Paving with a bid of $1,015,347.60 for the asphalt overlay project.
The contracts will begin with some patching and curb repairs before milling the streets and following with full-depth asphalt resurfacing.
OMG Midwest also landed the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) contract for converting First Avenue to a three-lane roadway. The repaving and restriping work is expected to be completed this summer.
The First Avenue road-diet project will be wholly financed by state funds and will cost Perry taxpayers zero dollars.
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.
Perry residents last enjoyed a similar 45-block overlay project in the summer 2016 at a cost of $810,000.