Planning for a Municipal Paving Project

Running a city is challenging enough on its own. You’re trying to strike a delicate balance between keeping property taxes under control, preserving infrastructure, conserving green spaces, maintaining quality of life, and keeping your constituents happy. When the time comes for even a minor municipal paving project, it seems like that delicate balance can easily be turned on its ear. Unit Paving Inc has helped many towns and cities throughout the Carolinas plan and execute municipal paving projects using permeable interlocking pavers. Here are some of the planning considerations that have gone into our most successful projects.

Budgeting

Most municipalities aren’t flush with cash. Understanding, then controlling, costs is a vital part of any paving project, and we’ll help you to do that without cutting corners on paving materials or workmanship.

Design and Planning

Even the most careful budget falls apart if the project isn’t designed carefully, planned well, then managed to perfection. We leverage many years’ worth of experience in sustainable hardscape planning, supply chain management, logistics, and the many other facets of paving projects to ensure success.

Traffic Circulation

There’s no getting around the fact that even a well-planned and well-executed paving project will be disruptive. A traffic study is vital for anticipating use patterns and detours during the project, as well as the traffic impact once the project is completed.

Parking

Whether we’re creating a new public parking area or paving in an area that uses on-street parking, one important goal is to ensure there’s sufficient space to minimize inconvenience and disruption to daily life for residents, commuters, and shoppers.

Impact on Local Businesses

Local businesses shudder when they hear a paving project is underway. They anticipate noise, dust, and lost business. Proper planning and communication can keep your business community firing on all cylinders for the duration.

Environmental Impact and Regulations

There’s always a morass of local, state, and federal regulations to deal with. Many of these will have to do with the environmental impact of paving applications, whether you’re rehabilitating an existing paved surface or opening a new stretch of road. Unit Paving will help with the permitting and regulatory hassles that too often accompany paving projects.

Plan Review

Once the community and environmental impact of the project have been assessed and all the regulatory boxes checked, we’ll revisit our plans to ensure there are no changes needed and no potential surprises lurking within.

Public Comment

If your community requires a period of public comment, it’s best to do this once plans are close to their final form. By now, you’ll have the information you need to address citizens’ concerns over the impact on their community, the environment, and their day-to-day lives, which makes for a more productive conversation around the proposed project.

Construction

Now — finally — it’s time to get to work. Site prep and construction moves quickly; indeed, you’re likely to find it’s over much faster than you expected. Our goal is to bring any project in on time and on budget, without compromising quality. We take pride in how often we’ve done just that!

Maintenance

Just as important as the paving project itself is the follow up that comes after. Permeable pavers tend to be lower-maintenance than comparable asphalt and concrete surfaces, but they’re not maintenance-free. Unit Paving can consult with your local DPW to ensure the work we’ve done holds up for many years to come.

Communication

One thing that’s key to any project is keeping lines of communication open among the various stakeholders. We strive to keep this as easy as possible, and actively encourage you to contact us at any point with your questions or concerns. If you’re currently planning a municipal paving project, in fact, you should start by contacting Unit Paving today.