Libby city road repavement project to span a week

A repavement project on Libby streets started at 6 a.m. Wednesday and will contunue during the next week. 

Mayor Doug Roll said the new pavement will stretch from Louisiana Avenue to 2nd Street and will continue down Lincoln Boulevard. The project also will repave pockets on various streets across Libby.

Libby City Council President Bill Bischoff, who is also the Lincoln County Commissioners’ executive assistant, said the city and county have been working together on the street repavement projects. Roll said the city and county were working together because each had equipment that the other needed to complete the projects. 

“We had to work together for this,” Roll said. “The county used our trucks, and the city used their asphalt machine.”

The county needed more asphalt trucks to complete its paving, which were provided by the city. In turn, the city needed to use the paving machine that is owned by the county. 

By joining up for the paving jobs, the city got a discount on asphalt from the asphalt mill. Just before Wednesday, the city received the asphalt from the mill to start the project, and with the county equipment in tow, the project could begin.

Roll said that since the city has had to wait to use county equipment and because of some lag at the asphalt mill, the project is a few days late. However, he said the street project will be completed quickly.

“We are hoping to have the streets completely paved within a week,” Bischoff said.

Roll said that the city was waiting until the county finished paving county roads, which took a week and a half. 

Earlier in the year, the city completed a repavement project on Fifth Street, and other patches have been paved on Main Street. Roll said the city also did curbing on Louisiana this year.

Roll said that this year, the city will have spent $250,000 on paving. Roll said each deconstructed street the city planned to repave this year will get done.

The city will have committee meetings and discussions over the winter about 2015 repaving projects, particularly on Balsam Street and Idaho Avenue.