Road construction addressed by city manager

Road construction began recently on St. Joseph Street with city workers replacing water lines prior to the repaving project planned by TxDOT.

City Manager Tim Patek spoke to the Inquirer about the construction on St. Joseph Street and other road work the city has planned.

“The situation is (that) we wanted to get finished with the water line before TxDOT comes in, in July, and starts paving. TxDOT has from July the 4th until the end of August to come in and pave all of St. Joseph,” Patek said.

The city is working on two phases of getting the waterline replaced, and Patek explained the city was not allowed to “commingle money” from the American Recuse Plan Act (ARPA) and the General Land Office (GLO). Patek handed out a construction projects schedule in the last regular city council meeting listing out the timeline of those projects, including road work the city will be completing on St. Lawrence. Patek said they are waiting on ARPA funds to arrive prior to further projects.

“Once we get those, then we'll be able to do that project. So hopefully, we can start bidding that out, probably within the next month or two. Get those funds in here in September, and then get that completed,” Patek said.

Regarding informing the residents of Gonzales about the road work; Patek had a staff meeting earlier Tuesday about getting that information out via social media (Facebook) and possibly robo calls.

“A lot of the time they put this out in advance, so people get used to the adjusted pattern of driving,” Patek said, “And right now you can come down St. Joseph and you have to detour a little bit. The rest is just converted to one way driving.”

Patek continued to explain that the city is not trying to affect businesses in this renovation plan, the city hopes to get projects bid in a timely manner, taking the effects of rising prices into account, and the effect on city planning.

“We’re seeing costs go through the roof, so it affects all of that,” Patek said.

City officials will continue to work on the budget, as issues arise, and will continue to look into projects for fiscal year 2022-23.

“We have a five year CIP (Captial Improvement Projects) plan, and we go off of that, and we're able to move things up or move things back, depending on what's going on, what's more pressing than others, and so forth,” Patek said.