The Valmeyer Village Board unanimously voted to start the process of upgrading the town’s streets at its meeting last Tuesday. 

The move comes after engineering firm TWM completed a study evaluating the quality of Valmeyer’s streets. 

Valmeyer Village Manager Dennis Valentine reported the company found 12 percent of the village’s roads were poor, 16 percent were fair, 65 percent were satisfactory and 7 percent were good. All of those latter streets were in the Bluff Meadows area. 

To address those issues, TWM said Valmeyer could replace all streets with concrete for about $13 million, replace all roads with asphalt for approximately $10 million or put a two-inch asphalt overlay on all streets for around $2.7 million. 

“I’m suggesting we go with the two-inch asphalt overlay starting with the poor streets and, as money is available, dealing with the fair and satisfactory,” Valentine recommended. 

The board took that recommendation, so it now begins the bidding process for that work. 

TWM estimated the work for the first few streets it rated poorly would cost around $150,000 to put the overlay on this summer. 

The cul-de-sacs on Meadow Court, Fox Pointe and the end of Meyer Avenue are all included in the initial phase of this work. 

The village will not need to borrow money for this first phase, though it may need to issue bonds for future steps. 

It also plans to monitor the roads for six to eight months, including over the winter, before moving too far along in the project.