DOT to resurface Glenwood Avenue

The state Department of Transportation plans to begin resurfacing the street between Wade Avenue and Woman's Club Drive on Tuesday. The $1.7 million project involves removing the crumbling top layer of asphalt, milling the base and applying a new layer of asphalt.

"It could keep us from spending a large amount of money to patch and still take care of the issue," said Reid Elmore, district engineer for the DOT.

The problems on that stretch of Glenwood Avenue are not simply potholes, Elmore said. In DOT parlance, the road is "spalling," meaning the asphalt is coming loose from its concrete base.

Either way, he says, the craters make for a rough ride. Drivers are quick to agree with that assessment.

"I don't even mess with Glenwood. There are too many cars, and the potholes are terrible," said Asa Dunbar, who rides to work on Glenwood Avenue on a motorized 1959 Sears Starliner bicycle.

"It just makes me nervous when the cars swerve to miss the pothole, and they're coming into our lane," driver Jo McKenna said.

Bryan Barker, who owns the Glenwood Village Exxon, said he has had to repair tires or realign the steering on numerous cars because of the uneven surface along the road.

"It's as bad as I've ever seen it," Barker said.

Elmore said resurfacing the road instead of trying to patch holes could save taxpayers up to $20,000. Contractor CC Mangum Co. is expected to finish the project by June.

A resurfacing project on Wade Avenue is already about halfway done, and work on the street between Oberlin Road and Capital Boulevard will start when warm weather arrives, he said.

"In the meantime, I will be cautiously driving, trying not to swerve into the other lane and probably getting my car aligned soon," McKenna said.