LJWorld.com / Time to hit the roads

Archive for Tuesday, March 11, 2008

March 11, 2008

Feature

Proposed summer street work

City engineers assign a condition score to every street in the city at least every four years. Those pavement condition scores are a major factor in deciding which streets receive repairs.

Call it Selection Tuesday.

It doesn't have the fanfare of Selection Sunday when the list of 65 college basketball teams chosen for the NCAA Tournament is announced, but the list city commissioners will sign off on today likely will have far greater impact on your summer.

It's the list of this summer's Lawrence road projects. This year, it will be a high-profile list with Massachusetts, 19th and South Iowa streets serving as headliners.

"Last year it was focused more on the residential areas," said Dena Mezger, an assistant director of public works for the city. "This year we're trying to focus on the high-volume roads because they are the ones that take more of a beating."

At their 6:35 p.m. meeting today, commissioners are set to approve the 2008 Street Maintenance program. The $4.8 million for the program - which pays for repaving, crack sealing, curb and gutter repair, and other similar road maintenance items - was approved last summer as part of the 2008 budget. But tonight's action determines the main areas of the city where the money will be spent.

Work could begin on the projects as early as April, Mezger said. Three projects will stand out:

¢ Massachusetts Street and parts of Seventh Street will be repaved.

¢ South Iowa Street repaving from 23rd to 31st Street.

¢ 19th Street: new turn lanes and repaving in the area.

Discussion

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11 March 2008
at 7:19 a.m.

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grimpeur (Anonymous) says…

17th Street from Barker to Alabama.
13th Street from Pennsylvania to Oread.

KU should kick in 50% of expenses for repairs west of Mass on these two projects.

When will the 19th St. bike lanes be extended to the west from Mass? Why not now? There's an unused eastbound lane on 19th between Ohio and Mass. Let's see some progress that doesn't involve creating motor traffic congestion!
11 March 2008
at 8:36 a.m.

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supercowbellninja (Anonymous) says…

What about:

— Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Vermont, Louisiana, etc between 6th and 19th streets?
— 9th street between Iowa and Connecticut desperately needs lines repainted

All the work the city has on its plate is needed, but would be nice if they can find time for more. Let's get that half-cent sales tax going so we can save our infrastructure!
11 March 2008
at 10:59 a.m.

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Toto12 (Anonymous) says…

Wow, look at all that money they're spending in East Lawrence again.
11 March 2008
at 11:15 a.m.

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average (Anonymous) says…

Agree with Grimpeur. In particular, 17th between Tennessee and Mass needs love very badly (the map has it as an alternate area).

For East Lawrence, I'm glad to see 7th and NJ (by the Santa Fe depot) on the list.

While I like roundabouts and traffic calming (in theory) the “concrete tugboats” (pedestrian refuges) interact badly with our poor streets. When a hole develops on one side or the other of a tugboat, drivers cannot avoid it (as most subtly do on an unimpeded road). When thousands of drivers can't avoid the hole, it damages cars and the hole grows much faster. This is why roundabouts should have a concrete driving radius, not just asphalt.
11 March 2008
at 11:55 a.m.

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hawkperchedatriverfront (Anonymous) says…

East of Kasold again neglected. The city is intent on continuing to have the five target neighborhoods as the prostitutes for the city to garner federal money. I wonder how the City Manager, the city commissoners and the head of Neighborhood Resources feel being the Pimp Daddies of the target neighborhoods.

Watch these overlays with no new curbs or drainage corrections. More asphalt to be sold by the one and only former city engineer's husband. What a deal!
11 March 2008
at 12:01 p.m.

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booze_buds_03 (Anonymous) says…

I do not see why you think KU should be 50% responsible. If that is the case, shouldn't every business in town be 50% responsible for street repairs that affect them?
11 March 2008
at 12:35 p.m.

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hawkperchedatriverfront (Anonymous) says…

Why are streets overlaid without new curbing in place and proper drainage to storm sewer openings (which rarely exist in the older parts of town). This project is a pork barrel for the ashphalt company. Too bad the J/W won't document this summer paving project and then go back next year and look at the same streets and the horrible condition they will be in.
11 March 2008
at 11:07 p.m.

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grimpeur (Anonymous) says…

Why should KU help pay for city streets? Ten years ago, according to KU, there were more than 60,000 vehicle trips to and from campus each day. In a December, 2007, interview, “Donna Hultine, director of Parking and Transit, said the Lawrence campus has 14,376 total spaces, 10,770 of which are available to students, or one space for every 2.446 students. Those numbers don't take into account the Park and Ride lot on west campus.”

This means that the new lots on west campus (Shenk = 1,500 and Lied = 1,000) added more than 20% to KU's parking capacity. Trips on/off campus (i.e. on our streets) will have increased proportionately. That's huge.

Other businesses pay for more than their share by subsidizing drivers with property and sales taxes—KU doesn't. KU's campus is right in the middle of town, which means that KU depends entirely on Lawrence city streets to carry those customers and employees to campus. And every time a new space is added, another car is invited to drive into the center of town. And that doesn't include the thousands more cars which overrun neighborhoods and generate congestion. The road repairs are just part of the costs.

My suggestions: triple the price of KU's embarassingly cheap parking permits, with the added revenue earmarked for repairs to collector streets, say, within 1/2 mile of campus and through residential streets within 1/4 mile or for a general fund for city road repairs; a moratorium on new KU parking (and LHS and FSHS, too); issue free or discounted bus passes to KU faculty and staff; put the “park and ride” lots outside the city center or in Topeka and in JoCo, not smack dab in the center of town; provide premium parking for carpoolers with 3 or more occupants; allow on-street parking by residential permit only (crazy, I know); improve bus (and, later, rail) service to make it preferable to driving, for instance by consolidating all MV Transit in Lawrence into a single system serving the city and KU, expanding to serve the K-10/I-70 KC/Joco/Law/Topeka corridor. The control issues for KU's bus service are considerable, but not intractable. If KU wants to maintain control, then fine, but it's time, as one observer accurately noted, for KU to take responsibility for its traffic.

If the city and KU can't find a way to make this happen, then KU's motoring customers and employees will continue to run roughshod over the taxpayers of Lawrence.
12 March 2008
at 12:51 a.m.

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KUweatherman (Curtis Lange) says…

Embarrassingly cheap parking passes my ass.