The city’s top road builders are preaching patience when it comes to fixing some of the city’s more severely deteriorating streets.

Before undertaking major rebuilding projects, leaders with the city’s Public Works Department are urging city commissioners to first focus on stopping more city streets from falling into disrepair.

“We think our primary emphasis right now should be to keep good pavement in good condition,” said Chuck Soules, the city’s director of public works.

To do that, the city needs to come up with an additional $1.9 million for street maintenance in 2007, Soules told commissioners at a study session Thursday morning.

The city also needs to be prepared to wait a little longer before undertaking projects on streets that a recent survey by city crews found to be in need of major repairs.

Soules said it might be “several years” before the city will be in a financial position to fix the streets that ranked the lowest after an inventory of pavement conditions on city streets.

“This is not going to be a year or two program to fix all these streets,” Soules said. “It will take several years to see huge differences.”

But city commissioners said they liked the general plan of attack. That’s in large part, commissioners said, because they realize that the city has a significant number of streets that are adequate now but quickly could fall into the difficult-to-repair category without special maintenance. Keeping those streets from falling into disrepair will be cheaper for the city in the long run, commissioners said.

“I’m very heartened by this plan,” City Commissioner Mike Rundle said. “This is an enormous project and you guys have really grabbed onto it.”

But commissioners didn’t get into details about how they would fund the $6 million street maintenance program, which would be up from the $4.1 million budgeted for this year.

Interim City Manager David Corliss said it was too early to tell whether the increase would require a tax increase or a cut in other city services or could be funded through growth in city revenues. City commissioners aren’t expected to have a detailed revenue picture until this summer.

In February, commissioners received a report that showed 31 percent of the city’s 300 miles of streets were damaged to the point that typical repairs – such as pothole filling or simple repaving – were no longer enough to keep the roads at acceptable standards.

On Thursday, city leaders sought to assure motorists that even though they weren’t ready to rebuild the low-ranking roads, they would continue to fill potholes and do other work to keep the streets as functional as possible. But Soules has said because of underlying problems – such as deteriorating road bases – many of the quick fixes won’t last as long as engineers would like.

“But we definitely won’t just ignore those streets,” Corliss said.

City commissioners also told staff members to come up with a plan showing how long it would take to properly fix all streets needing repair.

“I would hope that in the next year we’ll have a plan in place,” said Mayor Mike Amyx.

Commissioners also touched briefly on one other street-related topic. The proposed $6 million maintenance budget doesn’t include money for special work on brick streets. Soules said several of the brick streets in older neighborhoods need repair.

Soules said the city likely would need to talk with neighbors, historic preservationists and others to determine if all the brick streets should be saved or whether some could be replaced with asphalt.

Soules said replacing a brick street could cost around $500,000 per block, but if repairs are done correctly the streets can last several decades with minimal maintenance.

Commissioners directed staff members to gather more information, including possible financing options for brick street programs.