ST. CROIX — Marco St. Croix’s recent addition of in-house road striping is expected to reduce the backlog on The Big Island now that two options are available, but delays are possible in the St. Thomas/St. John District because there is only one contractor who provides the service, according to the head of the Department of Public Works.
Public Works Commissioner Derek Gabriel said all road paving projects funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation and most of the locally funded projects include striping provisions.
“Safety regulations, traffic regulations are a part of all of our federal projects, so we do include striping, as well as on our local projects,” he said, clarifying that road striping is included in about 70% to 80% of local projects.
Despite the inclusion of road striping as part of paving projects, the white lines on the road edges and yellow lines or dashes in the middle do not always get painted on immediately after fresh asphalt is laid. Gabriel acknowledged the delay.
“The reason that there is such a lag time between when the project is paved versus when it’s striped is because there is only one striping contractor in each district,” he said last month. “We are reliant on those two contractors for all of our striping needs territory wide, and that does create a backlog.”
Lake’s Trucking and Heavy Equipment, a family-owned business, has been striping roads on St. Croix for about 25 years. Precise Builders (Bruney’s Inc.) provides the service in the St. Thomas/St. John District. Lake’s Trucking and Precise Builders were the only two contractors in the territory with road striping capabilities until Marco St. Croix expanded its operations.
“We started with the road striping last week,” Carlos Velazquez, Marco St. Croix project manager, said on June 26.
The water delivery and trash removal company is also a DPW contractor that paves roads on St. Croix. Since beginning work on Airport Road (Route 64) last December, Marco has milled and paved the entire three-mile stretch. The final step was road striping, which Marco’s crew has completed.
Now that Marco has the necessary road striping equipment, Velazquez said the company no longer has to wait for Lake’s Trucking to be available to complete its jobs by striping the roads.
“Now we can start and finish within timelines,” Velazquez said, adding that Marco can also be hired to provide road striping services.
Until Marco stepped up its operations to begin striping roads, Airport Road was one of the recently paved roads that was lagging in terms of striping. Other recent striping projects awarded to Lake’s Trucking included Melvin Evans Highway and Clifton Hill Road.
A period of performance is included in each paving contract that requires road striping to be completed within six months to a year.
“If the striping company is available immediately, then you see the stripers out there as they’re finishing up paving, or in some instances right as they’re finishing up paving,” Gabriel said.
George Lake Jr., Lake’s Trucking co-owner and manager, said road striping projects get backed up when he receives multiple contracts.
“Some of these jobs are real big jobs so it takes us a little while to get it done, but we always try to go in and get it done as soon as possible,” he said, adding some projects take a month or two to complete.
Lake said he can also take a break from a larger job for one or two days to complete striping on a smaller job.
“We always try to maneuver and try to work with all the contractors to get what they need done, but everybody wants their job done as first priority,” he said.
Now that Marco St. Croix is striping the roads it paves, Gabriel said the projects assigned to Marco should be completed faster.
“I think that will be the most immediate impact the public will see,” he said.
The ability for Marco to stripe roads is also expected to free up Lake’s Trucking to complete other jobs on St. Croix.
“It would free him up to be able to focus on the other contractors that don’t have that capability in-house, in theory,” Gabriel said. “So, I guess in theory, we should be able to see a lot of our projects receive quicker attention as far as striping goes.”
Some of the other DPW road paving projects underway on St. Croix include roads in Estates Contentment, Smithfield, and La Grande Princesse in addition to Ethel McIntosh Memorial Drive (Mahogany Road). Gabriel said most of the roads are slated for striping, noting that striping could be limited on some of the smaller roads, especially in neighborhoods.
“We are looking at how we can do some safety measures,” Gabriel said. “Some of them may not be striped, but at least we’ll have the border striping on the road’s edge.”
The newly paved roads are not the only ones that get striped either. Gabriel said DPW works with the striping companies to replace the paint on roads when it wears off. He said the department is looking at ways to ramp up striping on existing roads every year or two, especially on the major roads.
To meet all the demand, Gabriel encouraged entrepreneurs to consider starting a road striping business. Even with two options now available on St. Croix, he said there is still room for more road striping contractors.
“I think it’s a fantastic entrepreneurial opportunity for anyone out there looking for it,” he said, noting training is available through the U.S. Department of Transportation and the DOT in certain states.
Gabriel said starting a road striping business does take a capital investment because the equipment and paint must be purchased. Upon completing training and hiring a crew, he said there will be plenty of work with various projects funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Department of Transportation.
“There are a number of projects, period, that are happening in the territory,” he said. “The pipeline is really healthy, and I would encourage anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit to really look into it.”
