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Posted on Sun, Feb. 22, 2009

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Street repairs face challenges of budget crunch

BY BRENT D. WISTROM

The Wichita Eagle

Along one of the nicest paved trails in Wichita is a crumbling street called North Oak Park Drive. It slices through a heavily used disc golf course near the Little Arkansas River in North Riverside Park.

But it floods frequently. Standing water seeps into the pavement and erodes it on a microscopic scale that has grown into deep cracks and softball-sized chunks of broken-out asphalt.

North Oak Park Drive is among the worst paved roads in Wichita, which has more than 500 miles of street in "critical" condition and, like many cities, isn't spending enough to keep up with the deterioration.

Dozens of other streets are in similar shape -- drivable, but bumpy. They are steadily worsening, forcing the city to spend more to fix them. Miles of newly annexed roads put more strain on an inadequate budget.

It will be up to City Council members -- including whoever wins three contested races this spring -- to decide how to address the problem. (Read recent profiles on the upcoming Wichita city elections.)

Courtney Darrah, a 28-year-old who lives at the corner of North Oak Park Drive and North Forest Avenue, would like to see the roads fixed. She, her husband and two kids ride their bicycles on the sidewalk instead of on the street. But she sees benefits in a bumpy road.

"It slows people down and there are a lot of kids around. It acts like a speed bump," she said.

She also would rather see her tax dollars improve the park she lives next to. Her view exemplifies part of the dilemma council members face when they prioritize spending -- fix roads or fund other projects that are often sexier and call for ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

It's those battles of priority and rising repair costs that have led streets to a critical point that affect almost everyone in some way.

Rough roads eat away tires, jostle alignment and jiggle wires and bolts loose under the hood, sometimes forcing vehicles into the shop earlier than expected, auto repair experts say. And when cracks grow and potholes proliferate, the city is forced to reconstruct the roads instead of repaving them, costing tens of thousands more per block.

People notice.

About 1,000 residents responding to a city survey in 2006 gave the city a 32 out of 100 on "street repair," the lowest marks for any transportation issue. They ranked street maintenance highest when asked what more city money should be spent on.

Wichita already trails cities such as Tulsa and Colorado Springs in maintenance spending.

On average, cities with more than 100,000 people spent $2,759 per paved lane mile in 2006, according to the International City/County Management Association. Wichita spent $1,822 per mile that year.

'Going backwards'

Moved by some compelling figures that show how quickly streets go from bad to worse, the council voted last year to add another $2.5 million to the street maintenance fund -- short of the $4.1 million public works officials said they needed just to hold conditions steady.

It would take another $10 million a year over the next decade to fix the city's most critical streets, according to a public works report.

But even the additional $2.5 million is on hold as the city examines how it can withstand grim budget projections.

Wichita's overall road conditions will decline this year -- with or without the approved cash.

"We're already going backwards," said Tony DeCicco, the city's maintenance engineer. "To be realistic, we're never going to have enough money to just fix all the streets."

For years, the city has focused on its most traveled roads, he said, and residential streets have fallen far behind. Most of the money is spent on keeping streets safe -- not on preventive maintenance that engineers and some council candidates would prefer.

Rating the roads

The city tracks road quality with a pavement condition index (PCI) that runs from 1, a dirt road, to 100, a road in perfect condition. The rating includes cracks, potholes and overall bumpiness.

The city's overall PCI has fallen from 73 in 2003 to 70 this year, an Eagle analysis shows.

That might sound high or low depending on where you drive.

Many of the best roads are either tucked away in new subdivisions or are heavily traveled arterials. Many of the worst roads are in densely packed neighborhoods in the city's aging core.

About 100 miles of dirt streets are spread across the city, including a stretch of Wichita Streetjust a few blocks from City Hall.

Residents have to get signed petitions from their neighbors to get dirt roads paved and then pay for it over 15 or 20 years. The city paves about 1.5 miles of dirt road a year, according to city documents.

Residents on asphalt or concrete streets have to wait their turn.

The city has a crack-sealing crew that can fill in cracks and pothole filling crews that prolong the life of the street. Resurfacing and reconstruction come out of the city's maintenance budget.

The streets that have a lot of complaints, a poor PCI rating or requests from council members get paved first, DeCicco said. The process is open to political pressure, but council members have not abused that, he said.

The city has about $15.5 million in its pavement maintenance budget this year -- more than half goes to in-house crews responsible for roads, bridges and many other things. The remainder -- about $5.9 million -- is for contract maintenance that mends entire roads at a time.

The contract cash is split evenly among the six City Council districts.

The problems are not.

District 2 in northeast Wichita is often seen as one of the most prosperous, but it also has the most miles and highest percentage of road with PCIs of less than 60. District 1 in central northeast Wichita and District 6 in north-central Wichita follow. The worst of the worst -- dirt roads and those with PCIs under 30 -- are most concentrated in southeast and north-central Wichita.

Many streets with the poorest ratings are not on the city's fix-it list -- sometimes because of lack of complaints, other times because they are scheduled for reconstruction in the city's 10-year plan.

"We've got plenty of bad streets to go around," DiCicco said.

Fixing it

Last fall, Public Works Director Chris Carrier said it would take $100 million to reconstruct the 158 miles of city street with a PCI less than 50 -- those viewed as failing.

But he knew that was a long shot, if a shot at all. Many of his peers in other cities are in similar circumstances.

Cities and states are trying to deal with aging roads, bridges, sewers and sidewalks, but since the economy tanked, most have fewer dollars coming in.

Some are finding solutions.

Last November, Tulsa residents approved a one-cent sales tax and a general obligation bond issue that is expected to pay for $451 million in projects.

"It's really as much about economic development as anything," Tulsa Metro Chamber President and chief executive Mike Neal told the Tulsa World newspaper after the vote. "It's going to be so nice not to have to figure out which two or three streets we can drive prospects on when they come to town."

Topeka, prompted by its chamber of commerce, will vote in April on whether to start a half-cent sales tax to fund maintenance projects.

Wichitans already pay a 1 percent sales tax approved by voters in 1985 -- half was to keep property taxes down, and most of the remainder has funded construction of Kellogg.

No one in Wichita is suggesting a new sales tax. That likely would be a tough political sell as the aircraft industry jettisons thousands of jobs and other sectors of the city's economy sag.

One recent afternoon, Tony Lamb sat at a picnic table at the edge of Zimmerly listening to a crackly radio mounted to his bicycle.

He said he has been coming down the street -- now one of the worst in the city with a PCI of 26 -- for about 30 years.

It used to be for work. Now he's unemployed and homeless.

He said he hasn't been too bothered by the potholes, but he knows to ride slow in the area. He's watched thousands of trucks roll over the crumbling concrete and says it's time for the city to repave it.

But he said he doesn't have the money for a reasonable apartment, let alone tax dollars to pitch in on roads.

"If they'd fix it up like they did at 13th Street (and Broadway), that'd be great," he said.

Contributing: Hurst Laviana of The Eagle
Reach Brent D. Wistrom at 316-268-6228 or bwistrom@wichitaeagle.com.