A patchwork of Burleigh Street repairs are seen Monday where John Humphrey walks dogs Moxie, 8, left, and Hopper, 12, in Waterville. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

WATERVILLE — A handful of streets will be paved this spring and summer as part of a $1.5 million local street and sidewalk project.

Burleigh and Park streets, as well as Averill Terrace and Maura Court, will be paved as part of the project, which includes paving of sidewalks on both Burleigh and Park, said Public Works Director Matt Skehan and assistant City Engineer John Lombardi, the latter of whom supervises city road construction projects.

Mayor Mike Morris said Monday that, aside from general comments from people about the general condition of the roads, he personally might get between seven and 12 calls or emails a season about problems with roads.

He urges people who encounter road issues to contact public works, and they will be placed on a list to be fixed when crews can get to them.

The City Council on April 1 voted to approve a $1.44 million contract with Littlefield’s Construction of Benton to do the project with a 10% contingency of $145,000, for a total of $1.59 million. The money will come from the city’s 2025 paving bond.

To save money, the city is providing trucking and manpower, Skehan said.

Patches seen Monday show where road repairs have been done near potholes on Burleigh Street in Waterville. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

The project, to encompass 1.1 miles of road, is part of a five-year plan the city developed years ago in conjunction with utilities including Waterville Sewerage District, Kennebec Water District, Kennebec Sanitary Treatment District and Summit Natural Gas, Skehan and Lombardi said. It is important that the city coordinate with those utilities, they said.

“We do have a list, we do have a five-year plan,” Morris said. “We’re doing the best we can with the money we’ve got. Certainly if we had more money, we would certainly do more roads.”

City Manager Bryan Kaenrath said Monday the project addresses the most heavily traveled roads in the worst condition. Waterville several years ago got behind in its infrastructure improvements, which includes sidewalks, and is having to play catch-up, he said. The work needed to be done is beyond what the city can do without borrowing.

“We want to stick to this plan,” he said.

A number of roads are in terrible shape and need more than just top coat; they need rebuilding,  Kaenrath said.

While exact starting dates for each project this year are not yet determined, the work is expected be completed by the end of August, Lombardi said.

The city committed several years ago to set aside money every year for road projects, and Kaenrath has maintained that commitment in the time he has been with the city, Skehan said.

“We’re hoping that, as we move forward, $1.5 t0 $2 million is set aside annually for paving, typically through bonding,” he said. “We bonded last year and did complete a slug of streets.”

Those streets included Spring and Kennebec streets, the Concourse parking lot downtown, Messalonskee Avenue and Lockwood Alley off Water Street.

“A few years back, Wright-Pierce (engineering firm) did a road inventory,” Lombardi said. “We use that as a tool to help us determine what roads we’re going to do.”

Skehan said paving projects do disrupt the traffic pattern for a time as motorists are rerouted, but he asks that people be patient as work is being done to improve roads.

Meanwhile, crews have been out filling potholes on streets and roads that are particularly bad after heavy rains this time of year, Skehan said.