The city ceremonially closed Durham's 2011 paving season Saturday with a to-do on Harvard Avenue, and reported it is 27 miles ahead of schedule.

City Hall is pushing to have 235 miles of city streets, those found in "poor" and "very poor" condition in a 2007 survey, repaved by fall 2012. It adopted a special logo, "The Pavenator," (right) to help personify its efforts. According to previous city estimates about 50 miles should be left to meet the goal.

The weather will be warm enough for paving for several more weeks, but according to city spokeswoman Amy Blalock three of the four contractors working on Durham streets have completed their contracts and packed up their machinery.

Repaving is being paid for with bonds voters approved in 2005, 2007 and 2010. Before the $20 million bond issue was approved last fall, City Manager Tom Bonfield said it would be the last time bonds would be used for street maintenance; future upkeep will be handled on a regular schedule from a dedicated maintenance fund.

Harvard Avenue, in eastern Durham, was a symbolic site for the season's-end ceremony, dubbed "The Buck Stops Here": The street's condition has been a thorn in residents' and the city's side for years.

Some of those residents tried repeatedly to get the city to pave a 1,500-foot, formerly gravel-and-dirt section of Harvard Avenue between Benjamine Street and Miami Boulevard. Each effort was thwarted by lack of interest on the parts of absentee landlords — since at least half of the property owners along a street must petition to get a street repaved.

In 2008, city authorities put Harvard Avenue on a high-priority list for resurfacing with 2007 bond money, although that money had been allocated to other projects.

Then, paving was held up when engineers how to deal with a flood-control problem  with a stream running under the street while residents fretted and fumed over what they perceived as official foot-dragging. But the city did toss in a new sidewalk, without assessing the property owners the usual $5-per-foot fee.
 

Street resurfacing has been coming along apace, and work under two outstanding contracts should be winding down once the weather warms up enough for asphalt to flow, city engineering manager Ed Venable told the City Council Thursday.

And four new contracts are up for council approval. Those will put the $20-million bond issue, which   voters approved last fall, to work -- and, because bids came in lower than expected, the paving schedule should be completed next year with about $2.8 million left over, Venable said.

That money could be held in reserve, or be used to pave more streets, or cover unexpected expenses along the way. Maybe.

The catch is in the Middle East, where anything can happen any time. Those low bids for paving jobs are conditioned on market conditions and the cost of asphalt can be affected by unrest over there. And these days, over there, the natives are acting pretty restless.

In other words, like Grandma said, don't be counting any chickens yetawhile.

 NCDOT engineer Chad Hinnant says repaving crews have three or four more nights to go before completing the top asphalt surface on Mangum and Roxboro streets downtown.

Weather permitting, that is. In any case, while the work goes on, lanes are going to be closed  7 p.m. to 6 a.m.

DOT is also studying Chapel Hill Street between Buchanan and Gattis, where a leaking water main caused road damage. The leak has been fixed and the street temporarily patched, but DOT is still figuring how extensive permanent repairs are needed there.
 

He/she/it doesn't have a name yet, but you'll be seeing more of him/her/it before long.