Anyone getting onto southbound Highway 99 from Mitchell Road knows just how rough the pavement has become. That will soon change with the city hiring paving contractor George Reed, Inc., to smooth things over at a cost of $3.5 million contract.

The contact includes a major reconstruction and widening of Mitchell Road south of Service Road to the state highway right-of-way. It also includes the updating and redesigning of the intersection of Service and Mitchell roads - at a cost of $1.095 million - to accommodate the future building of commercial centers and alignment for the future interchange projects. This project also incorporates improvements required by the proposed Mitchell Ranch Shopping Center, associated commercial developments and the planned new diverging diamond interchange.

Public Facility Fees as well as conditioned fair share costs will be collected as an offset project costs.

City Manager Toby Wells said awarding the entire project at once is the most cost-effective and minimizes the impacts to the motoring public during construction rather than a piece-meal approach as projects come in over time.

With a 10 percent contingency of $321,410, the whole project comes to $3,535,546.