After a wet and cold winter pushed street paving into the spring, Carrollton officials say work should be completed in the coming weeks, and that there could be some traffic delays.

Over the weekend, crews worked to finish paving South Street as it runs between Bradley Street and Maple Street.

Following work there, the city will have used roughly $1.2 million of the $1.6 million allocated for paving work by the Carrollton City Council.

The work is being paid through the most recent special purpose local option sales tax, from a category set aside for roads and storm drain repairs. Although the entirety of the 2009 SPLOST has not yet been received by the city, the amount earmarked for roads and storm drains was $5 million.

While the initial plan was to repave between five and 10 roads in the city with the money, the intent of the project has shifted in recent weeks, with the decision being made to patch as many roads as possible with the available resources, said City Engineer Tommy Holland.

Specifically, Holland said, he would like to address some of the more deteriorated areas of some of the major thoroughfares in town, but the funds simply aren’t there.

“I’d like to get a lot more of Maple and Bankhead done. However, being wide and long we tried to get to a lot of the others that don’t use a lot of asphalt,” he said.

The project will pave 17.5 miles across the city.

If the weather remains warm and dry, Holland said, the remainder of the work could be finished in two to three weeks, depending on the weather. Holland said cold and wet conditions are one of the main problems that has necessitated this kind of roadwork, as ice expands in crevices in roads and can undermine their structural integrity.

“It has caused some of the streets to break and crack up. Water gets down into the asphalt, and there are smaller cracks there, and it basically causes the asphalt to deteriorate from extreme freezing and thawing,” he said.

The remaining roads include a section of North Burson Avenue, Alabama Street as it runs from Highway 27 to Adamson Square, South Cliff Street, a section of Matthew Street, Cross Street, Lucille Avenue, Ambulance Drive, Professional Place, Forrest Drive and Park Place Way.

Wherever crews are on a specific day, Holland said, traffic flow could be affected “depending on the streets being done and the time of the day.”

To ensure the work stands up to the elements in the future, many of the roads being repaved are first being milled, which requires crews to tear up a portion of the existing roadway to ensure the fresh asphalt not only remains below the level of the curb but also that it adheres well to the existing roadway.

Roads require paving every 10 to 15 years, Holland said, and the city is doing its due diligence to try and ensure that all roads within its limits receive a new surfacing every decade or so.