“Newspapers around the state are taking note of the fact that Lawrence has become a leader in paved streets with the notation there will be 12 miles of bricked streets here by the middle of this year. We are the envy of many.” – The Lawrence Daily World, Feb. 2, 1906

If Lawrence streets are the envy of the state today, standards apparently have deteriorated as much as the local pavement.

The above quote from the Journal-World’s “Old Home Town” column is an interesting contrast to the news on Tuesday’s front page that nearly a third of Lawrence’s streets have deteriorated beyond repair. The report released last week doesn’t include an estimate of how much it will cost to rebuild the streets, but it says the city needs to raise its budget to $6 million per year through 2009 just to keep additional streets from falling into the unacceptable category.

That’s an increase of $2 million over the city’s current street maintenance budget and $3 million more than what was budgeted for 2005. Providing that much additional money in next year’s city budget won’t be easy, but city commissioners have little choice but to try.

Chuck Soules, director of the city’s Public Works Department, said that, after 2009, the city shouldn’t have to spend the entire $6 million on preventative projects. The excess, he said, could go toward major repairs or rebuilding streets that can’t be reclaimed with minor repairs. But the city has about 300 miles of streets, meaning about 90 miles have been rated as unacceptable. Considering that a seven-block stretch of Kasold Drive between Clinton Parkway and Bob Billings Parkway will cost $3.7 million to rebuild, it’s hard to imagine the city can make much headway on such projects with only an additional $1 million or $2 million a year.

The new streets that are built should last longer, Soules said, because of updated building standards that have been put into effect. For instance, Wakarusa Drive was built directly on Kansas clay that shrinks and expands causing frequent cracks and potholes and is one of the streets that will have to be rebuilt. Wakarusa Drive is far from the city’s oldest thoroughfare, and rebuilding such major routes will be an expensive proposition.

The report on the condition of city streets only confirms what many local drivers would have surmised on their own: that Lawrence hasn’t done enough to maintain this important part of its infrastructure. Looking back at how the city’s streets were allowed to get into their current state of disrepair may be a fruitless exercise, but whatever mistakes were made now have come home to roost and local officials and taxpayers will have little choice but to foot the bill for remedial action.