Rehoboth Beach's annual street repaving begins today. They're repaving five streets and replacing the water main on Olive Avenue. They replace certain water mains every year, in addition to the street repaving, but never on the same street. Today, they will begin replacing a water main on the second block of Olive Avenue.
In a few weeks, they will repave Olive Avenue, followed by four other roads.
Each year, the city determines which streets need it most and get a $500,000 grant from the Board of Commissioners to repair them.
“We have each road in town scored, so each one has a score and we target the ones that are in the worst condition," Rehoboth Beach Public Works Director, Kevin Williams said.
They will repave each street one at a time following the completion of the water main. Olive Avenue should take around a month for water main replacement and repaving. Repaving on the other streets are expected to take one to two weeks each. The city says they're trying to make it as convenient as possible for people who live there.
“We do work very hard to make sure that everyone always has access to their homes. We never block it such that they can’t get into their driveways,” Williams said.
But businesses have concerns. The Boardwalk Plaza Hotel has Sea Witch weekend on its mind. Food and Beverages Manager, Stephen Cobb, says they haven't heard from the city about when construction will make its way to them and block their main parking lot.
“Occupancy is still high, the weather is still beautiful, and I think they could push it off for several more weeks," Cobb said.
The city says this is the ideal time to do it, and that most people want the roads fixed.
All work should be done in November, but bad weather could cause delays. Cobb says the project should be pushed off for now.
“We’ve still got some time for this road and some of the other side streets. There’s some other pressing problems road-wise in town," Cobb said.
The construction is expected to start at 8 a.m. on Olive Avenue and run until 5 p.m. each weekday.
Information on which roads will be affected and a full work schedule are on the City of Rehoboth's website.
