Those driving near the new Portsmouth High School will see smooth, paved streets with freshly-painted lane markings.

This year, the city's summer street paving program focused on the area surrounding the school.

“City Council budgets for the paving in the capitol improvements budget each year,” engineering office manager Bill Beaumont said. “Once they pass the budget, we can start.”

City Council usually passes the CIP in the spring. Beaumont said the decision on which streets to pave begins then.

This year's paving project started on Aug. 16 and concluded Tuesday.

The city budgeted $220,000 for the work, which was bid to the Shelly Construction Company, of Chillicothe.

Cunningham Asphalt, of Wheelersburg, also submitted a bid for the project.

The work consisted of milling the streets, then applying tack coat and 1 1/2 inches of asphalt.

The engineering department is responsible for street paving, and the service department handles pothole repair.

The following streets were repaved: