COVINGTON, Ky. – The beginning of spring and warmer weather marks the start of Covington’s annual street and sidewalk projects.

This year’s projects include street resurfacing and road repair in Latonia and South Covington and sidewalk repair and replacement in northern Covington.

The City’s annual street resurfacing will cover Latonia and the eastern half of South Covington. Covington will spend $523,703 of state municipal road aid funds and federal CDBG funds on approximately 57 streets in the City.

The City is divided into three geographic areas for annual street resurfacing projects. These areas are on a three-year rotating schedule. Work includes resurfacing and replacement of corresponding curb ramps to bring them up to current Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards.

Streets are prioritized in the area of focus based on the pavement rating, the amount of traffic, and coordination with the various underground utility companies. A full listing of streets scheduled for resurfacing this year can be found at cov.ky/streetresurfacing.

Other roadwork projects in South Covington include the replacement of concrete street panels at 86 locations on 33 different streets. Panel replacement is based on a prioritized concrete rating system and includes the installation of drains as needed to help with subsurface water.

Repair and replacement of deteriorated sidewalk sections along streets north of 26th Street is also underway. These sections were identified in a survey of priority sidewalk corridors. Some sections will be repaired by grinding down trip hazards while other segments will be completely replaced.

“We are very excited to get the sidewalk work going in the northern part of the City,” said city engineer Mike Yeager. “City staff and commissioners have put a lot of work into coming up with this strategic approach toward improving the conditions of the most heavily traveled sidewalks. The strategy has allowed us to stretch the funds that were allocated for these projects into additional areas and therefore have a much larger impact.”

An initial $140,000 of capital bond funds is being spent on removing any trip hazards higher than three-fourths inch on city sidewalks, in compliance with ADA standards. An additional $1.35 million of capital funds is reserved for replacement of any sidewalks that are in need of repair beyond the trip hazard removal process on these same corridors.

The sidewalk work is part of a multi-year, City-wide replacement program based on an inventory identifying sidewalks that were 25 percent deteriorated or worse. The first phase began in 2013 with almost $2.5 million of sidewalk replacement in South Covington and Latonia.