PENDLETON — The city of Pendleton’s summer street construction season is continuing into December.

Several streets in downtown Pendleton remain closed as road reconstruction projects that were supposed to finish by the end of September remain in progress. But torn up roads aren’t the Pendleton street system’s only affliction: cuts into street asphalt to replace underground utility lines, including water and sewer, are filled in but haven’t been paved over, leading to uneven driving conditions.

Public Works Director Bob Patterson said the city is at the mercy of the contractor and the asphalt plant. According to city officials, several street construction projects were delayed after contractors discovered natural gas lines weren’t buried as deeply as anticipated. While Cascade Natural Gas sent workers to rebury the lines, city officials said the contractor chose to send their work crews out to other projects rather than work on other Pendleton streets unaffected by shallow gas lines

Patterson said the late fall weather compounded the problem. Asphalt production slowed, he said, because it requires warmer temperatures. And simultaneous road projects in Pendleton, Stanfield, Milton-Freewater and Walla Walla, he added, mean contractors are spread thin.

The good news for Pendleton’s roads is that temperatures have been warm enough lately to allow the asphalt plant to reopen. Patterson said the pavement contractor was set to return to town Wednesday, Dec. 1, and after working on a road project for a housing development, work crews will return to the unfinished downtown streets. Additionally, Patterson said the smaller street repair projects, like some of the utility cuts, could be covered with patching material, which doesn’t require the same kind of warm weather to apply.

Patterson described the 2021 street paving season as the most challenging in his career. The city has assessed the pavement contractor penalties for its late work, and the city’s work in trying to put a wrap on street construction this year has pushed back planning time for next year’s road projects.

This year’s road construction was bolstered by an extra $1.2 million from the urban renewal district to reconstruct poor-quality roads in the downtown area. But the city has even more ambitious plans for 2022, with plans to spend $7.5 million to improve the overall quality of Pendleton’s street system. Patterson said staff intends to request council approval to contract with engineering firm Anderson Perry to help engineer the road repairs.