Many Rugby residents have grown tired of seeing road repairs extend into a second straight year, but project officials are hopeful the work will soon wrap up, weather permitting.

A drive around town reveals a number of sections of streets have been blocked off as crews have poured concrete valley gutters to help move along the flow of storm runoff to prevent it from pooling at intersections.

“It’s always frustrating when streets are blocked off, but the new valley gutters will help to address those trouble spots,’ said Roger Grimsely, project engineer with Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services.

Earlier this spring, the Rugby City Council approved installing the new gutters after it was evident standing water was present on recently completed streets. City officials were disappointed that overlay and seal coat work actually caused some drainage problems which were not present prior to the work.

The additional work, however, won’t raise the price tag of the street improvements since last year’s project came in under budget.

Grimsely said workers plan to pour asphalt this week to fill in the gaps between the gutters and the street. Once crews finish that project, attention will turn to completing the lengthy list of warranty covered items the general contractor, Bituminous Paving Inc., of Minnesota, needs to complete.

That list includes filling large cracks on streets, patching potholes and replacing sections of curb that didn’t hold up over the winter. Grimsley said a common misconception is that the streets that had an overlay or seal coat should have no cracks.

While the repairs are designed to extend the life of the pavement, cracks are inevitably going to surface as a result of the forces of earth and temperature changes.

Large and wide cracks that may cause sections of asphalt to break up and form holes, however, will be repaired, he said.

Under warranty until September

Bituminious Paving wants to complete the warranty work by the end of May, but the project remains under warranty into September, Grimsley said. If other problems arise, they can still be addressed.