Work On City Streets Could Cost $20 Million

I ií Ann Arbor's streets are going to get better, it'll take time and money. ín fact it could take 15 to 20 years and $20 milI lion or more. With City Council now actively considlenng a special tax levy to upgrade I-cracking and pothole-marked thoroughfares, City Hall officials are attempting to assess just how bad the streets are I and how much is needed to repair them But by one estímate, about 100 miles of Ann Arbor's 270 mües of pavement either need repairs now or will before long. And the price tag for this, although still only a "guesstimate", could reach more than $2 million annually. And even then the maintenance, and the money, cannot stop, says John Robbins, director of the Streets, Traffic and iJPartment and Tom Keranen, civil engineer in tháí epartment. If Ann Arbor is going to Have the type of streets, most people seem to want, a systematic program of repairs and maintenance must be undertaken, they say. ■ A rating system quantifying the condition of city streets have been completed but the result not yet compiled. However, assuming a newly built street has a 20-year life span, it wouM take about 13 miles of street work each year to provide the proper maintenance to Ann Arbor's 270 miles of road, the two officials say. For 1976, the STP department is proposing 13.6 miles of street work, at an estimated cost of $2.5 million. What raises the-immediate problem is that there's no money available to pay for this work. Street fixing is paid for by tradition, f rom state weight and gasoline tax rebates. But that fund is strained to Hrion lts limits, city officials say. The alternatives include a bond issue paid for by the general fund, which has its own tight money problems: a bond issue paid for through a millage increase, which also would require some of the money go for interest and not streets; or a straight millage hike. Republican City Council members are backing the latter, suggesting either a one mili permanent tax increase or a two-mill boost for 10 years. Other sources of money are either scarce or nonexistent. The city has $2.4 million available each of the next three years from Community Development Revenue Sharing, but even Republicans suggested that only $250,000 of this be used for street repair. That's enough to resurface one mile of street. The simple fact, that no one has de nied, is that the type of work needed makes CDRS and other bandaid-funding sources only drops in a very large bucket. - - „ ] One of the inevitable questions taxpayT ers would ask before voting to take more money from their pockets is: how did the streets get into their current condition? According to Robbins and Keranen the answers include geography, a population boom, and a failure to design streets adequately. Keranen says Ann Arbor has a "ricls geographical status, thajiks to the prehistoric glaciers which produced the Huron River and rolling terrain. Glacial movements resulted in the depositing of high quality sand and soil in some parts of the city, ideal for road building. Observatory Street is a case in point When torn up this summer to be reconstructed, wprkers found all the origimüj builders had done was remove the to 4 Isoil, level and ground and place six orl seven inches of concrete directly on thel earth. I A somewhati haphazard way of road building compáred to modern methods you may think. But the street lasted some 56 years, being built in 1919 In Ann Arbor's early days, buildeTs selected this type of soil because it was generally found in the most desirable and better draining areas of the city Many of these streets in older areas of the city have survived longer than some of the newer roads. The population boom of the past 25 years doubled Ann Arbor from a town of I about 50,000 people to a city of some lló 000, Keranen says. While a small town.' people could piek and choose where they wanted to live. But, as the city grew, the low lying and less desirable areas were developed, he said. Stréets that were built in the 1920s and 1930s 'for a small town with smaller traffic loads became thoroughfares for a larger city with increasing traffic. Streets built to accommodate lightweight Model T's and similar vehicles were forced to carry the heavier cars and trucks Droduced bv Detroit, = ButHvb?le;aH thései Mnges were curring one thing wasn't changing- the designs for new streets. The design for building a street on one type of soil or terrain was used for a different type soil which cóuld not support that pavement. A critical factor, Keranen says, is the moisture content in the soil. Sandy soil drains moisture well, meaning f reezing and thawing wip have less effect and streets of less thickness can be built. Ground with high clay content retains moisture, actually causing the pavement to raise and lower according to the weatner, he says. If the soil under a street has an uneven moisture content, the pavement willi raise and lower unevenly, eventually causing the pavement to break or be chipped away by traffic, producing the all-too-familiar potholes. Robbins and Keranen say steps have been taken to improve the quality of the' streets, and most of the changes came after the street maintenance functions were reorganized last year. The moisture problem is being attacked through a new engineering desien ihat drains water irom underneath streets; training sessions have been held for the inspectors who work with the contractors building and repairing streets; a survey has been conducted to determine what streets need repairs; street design and building specification standards have been updated. Other measures inaugurated include the "99-HOLES" telephone number residents can cali to report potholes ("We iisually manage to repair them the day of the cali or the next day," Robbins said); stricter requirements for utility companies to repair streets they have to tear up to get to underground lines; and a new and more efficiënt pothole patching material is being used. All of improvements are a help, but not a solution. Robbins says until last summer's $1.3 million repair program the city had .not undertaken a major repair effort in the decade he's been here. During Ann Arbor's building boom year„emphasis was placed on new street construction and "it tends to catch up with you," Robbins said. An effective repair effort "has to be a continual, systematic program," Keranen added. The city shbuld have a guaranteed funding source to plan repairs and maintenance three to five years anead, he said. These repair programs should include sealing streets with minor cracks, resurfacing and complete reconstruction, Keranen said. Robbins has estimated resurfacing runs about $200,000 per mile while a reconstruction, as was done to Observatory, costs from $1 million to $1.5 million per mile. The question is: will City Council and the voters be willing to pay the price? Republicans, who have made streets one of their top political issues in recent years, are obviously betting people will, buy it. The one-mill proposal would cost the average homeowner about $30 per year. But if it goes on the April ballot, it will have to compete in the minds of voters with the two milis the school district is seeking in November, plus any other special funding requests the city administration, Democrats or the Human Rights Party might try for in the spring.