News-Record.com

David Hoggard wonders why some of Greensboro's recently milled streets are turning our Chevys' seats into vibrating massage chairs. In a July 12 memo to council members, Deputy City Manager Mitchell Johnson attributes the problem to an aggressive schedule for the contractor hired to repave the streets.

In the memo, Johnson explains the three-step process for putting down new blacktop. First crews mill down the edges of the road near the curb. Then the crew raises the manhole covers and then they put down the new layer of asphalt.

In previous years, the city gave construction crews 30 days between when they ground down the road to when it should be finished. But to save money this year, the city allowed the contractor to do most of the milling all at once as long as the job was done within 30 days of the manhole risers going in.

What happened is that grinding went really quickly but the crews are taking a while to catch up with the rest of the work. Johnson pegged the savings to the city at $300,000 but conceded that the public might think things are awry.

"In reviewing the overall success of this year's process we did not adequately communicate the impact of our new process effectively thus leaving our citizens with the impression that we were well behind schedule since it was plain to see that much of the already milled streets were more that 30 days in process," Johnson wrote.

On a related note, the Greensboro Department of Transportation has a handy map showing downtown's new two-way streets and when they plan to finish the projects. Lindsay, Bellemeade, Davie and McGee streets are first on the list and are projected to be converted to two-way this fall.