Thanks to the federal government, drivers on St. Croix will soon see – and feel – a few less potholes.
The Department of Public Works last week began a $2.4-million project aimed at making three of the island’s main roads a little less hostile. Aloy Neilsen, director of highway engineering, said work has started to pave Route 64, just east of the airport road continuing north to Queen Mary Highway; Queen Mary Highway from the Paradise intersection to Sunny Isle; and Queen Mary Highway north through Grove Place to near the old drive-in theater.
The work includes excavation, shoulder and ditch reconditioning, placement of aggregate-base hot asphalt concrete pavement, asphalt pavement milling and other work.
The project is estimated to cost $2.4 million and is scheduled to be finished in early June.
The last large-scale road work on St. Croix was in the fall of 1999, when Public Works repaved and rebuilt most of the pothole-filled Southshore Road. That project, also federally funded, cost $5.3 million and covered more than 16 miles of road on the Big Island. Much of the work was done to accommodate the opening of the new Divi Carina Bay Resort and Casino on the east end.
