Council Member's Message

As Chair of Transportation & Public Works I have worked diligently for several years to address the infrastructure needs of our City, a task that has become evermore pressing as we've seen increasing gaps between those needs and our ability to meet them. The initial step in addressing this situation was a comprehensive needs assessment, followed by an exploration of the best and most innovative techniques for improvement. Once that work was done, it remained to find the resources to fund this essential work. That final piece was put in place through our generational investment in the 20 year $400 million Streets funding plan which allows us to increase improvements above the baseline service level. All of that being done, I'm pleased to announce that our first action of 2017, with several to follow, is the upcoming Concrete Streets Rehabilitation project in the Waite Park neighborhood.

This project will undertake the repair and resurfacing of concrete streets that were originally constructed in the mid-1960s. This is work that has been a priority for me for some time and that will significantly improve the functionality of these streets for a variety of users and augment the livability of the neighborhood.

As background, approximately 160 of the City’s 1100 miles of streets are constructed of Portland cement concrete. This was a new type of infrastructure in the 1960s and concrete streets were touted to have a much longer lifespan than asphalt streets. However, the tried and true techniques that have been long developed for asphalt street repair are not appropriate for concrete streets, so Public Works has needed to develop special methods for extending their functionality. To that end, the streets around Cavell Park were the subject of a concrete rehabilitation pilot project in 2013. The success of that pilot has made it possible to now undertake extensive work on the Waite Park neighborhood’s network of concrete streets. To put this in perspective, 6 miles worth of work will be done in the Waite Park neighborhood this year, which is double what has been done on concrete streets across the whole city in past years.

The infrastructure that enables people to live, work and play in our City and enhances the livability of our neighborhoods is a core responsibility of municipal government. We've put all the pieces in place and now it's Go Time in the First Ward!