ST. LOUIS – St. Louis City is resurfacing Kingshighway Boulevard between Penrose Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, even though that stretch of the road was resurfaced last fall.

“This is the second time we’ve endured it in less than six months,” Lyft driver Clyde Haas said. “Redid the pavement. Tore it all up and redid it. Now, I will say it was just as rough after they repaved it as it was before they did it.”

After the work was completed the first time, Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard heard from her constituents about the quality of the work. She said there were issues with the asphalt mix and how it was applied. So, the street director and director of board of public service agreed it had to be redone.

“It is once again a very big inconvenience for them to have that street now ripped back up but also take into consideration that we really wanted to get it right and this is what it takes to get it right,” Hubbard said.

After initially doing the work themselves, the city hired a contractor this time around. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said the paving and striping done in the fall cost $505,940.55. The work being done now will be an additional $1,218,017.85.

Mayor Tishaura Jones’ Deputy Director of Communications, Rasmus Jorgensen, said in a written statement, “We were unsatisfied with the result of the initial paving. We want the entire project to be up to our standards, so we made the decision to rectify the issues by repaving the drive lanes between Penrose and MLK.”

This work is a part of a $46 million project to repave and calm 30 miles of streets throughout St. Louis. Hubbard said she was concerned about the extra costs of redoing this stretch of Kingshighway.

“That was a big concern but when I asked the specific question, ‘Will this take away from any projects that are happening now or in the future?’ They said no. They assured me, no,” Hubbard said.

Haas hopes that that is true.

“They didn’t do a good job, but we’ve got much worse roads. It was repaved. Now, you’re throwing good money after bad and repaving it twice,” he said.

The city said contractors will complete the remainder of the repaving on this project. The city said contractors will complete the remainder of the repaving on this project.