Crack-sealing machine bought to help repair Port Angeles streets

"We want to get the work started before we get into the rainy season and take advantage of all the dry weather we can get," Fulton said.Crews will focus first on filling cracks in Eighth and Fifth streets and Lauridsen Boulevard, Fulton added.Abed said replacement or more extensive repairs will be needed on some city streets, such as a large stretch of 18th Street, since crack-sealing has limits to the extent of damage it can repair.Crews likely would take up no more than one lane at a time when crack-sealing a stretch of street, Fulton said, adding that flaggers likely would be in place to direct traffic around the work.

Abed estimated a residential city block could be done in two to three hours with traffic control already set up and work crews ready to start.Abed said crack seals can last between three to eight years and represent one of the cheapest way to repair city streets.Crack-sealing costs between 50 cents and 85 cents per square yard, Abed said, with chip-sealing costing between $4 and $10 per square yard.Complete street reconstruction can cost between $65 and $140 per square yard, Abed explained, and would cost the city about $138.8 million to replace all the city streets that need repair.

The old machines were 13 years old and Oswald said the city council approved the new machines which were purchased off a state contract at the same time that Hennepin and Anoka Counties purchased new machines. "It was time to update the technology and the software." The new voting machines use a jump drive instead of a card, which was the size of a hotel keycard, to collect voter data.Oswald says the voting process will be the same as other years. The larger screen may be the only change that voters notice. The ballot will be the same. "Basically it's a better thing for the voters, not much of a difference for us (the city clerk's office), but the voter will notice a difference if they spoil their ballot."