Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Peavy and Son Construction Company was on the job Friday morning, Oct. 2, resurfacing the section of Pearl Street between Mulberry and N. Jefferson streets.
A spokesman for the company said he expected that the entire job would be completed by this week, meaning all the way to Railroad Street.
The repaving of Pearl Street has been a long time in coming.
It was more than a year ago that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) awarded the City of Monticello a $210,505 SCOP grant for the repaving of the mile-or-so of Pearl Street between Mulberry and Railroad streets.
SCOP stands for Small County Outreach Program. It is one of the several road improvement programs that the FDOT administers and the only one of four that has a funding component for cities.
The original startup date for the resurfacing was supposed to be in June. But then the coronavirus pandemic was in full swing and almost everything else took a back seat to it.
As it came to be, the city finally awarded the repaving contract to Peavy and Son in July. Then in September, city officials approved a supplemental agreement awarding an additional $20,000 in funding for construction engineering inspection (CEI) services and authorized the city manager to negotiate with North Florida Professional, Inc., for the work.
Earlier in the year, the city had paid Dewberry Engineering $21,000 for the preparatory work for the repaving, which work included surveying the right-of-way, evaluating the existing roadway and drainage patterns structures and designing the new roadway.
No matter the time delay, the resurfacing seemed to have come just in time for the grand opening of the new Rancho Grande Mexican Restaurant on the corner of Pearl and Cherry streets.
The resurfacing of Pearl Street, along with the earlier enhancement work on Cherry and Dogwood streets, are part of an overall effort to enhance the downtown area and attract more visitors to the town.
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