Cedar Rapids releases list of 33 street projects for 2015

CEDAR RAPIDS — City officials on Wednesday announced the streets that city will fix this year in the city's Paving for Progress program, which is being financed by the 1-percent local-option sales tax.

The list of 33 street projects will translate into an estimated $9 million of work and builds on $8.2 million of work on some two dozen streets that has been completed since the 10-year program began in 2014, Doug Wilson, the city's capital improvement project manager, told the City Council's Infrastructure Committee this week.

The local sales tax brings in about $18 million a year, and the tax began to be collected on July 1, 2014, to fix streets.

The 2015 construction program consists of 17 projects to be handled by city crews and 16 by outside contractors, Wilson said. He said much of the work is asphalt resurfacing and some patching with a few reconstruction projects, which include work on 19th Street SE, 11th Street SE and B Avenue NW.

In 2016 and the years ahead, more reconstruction projects will be in the mix, but each year's work also will include street preservation projects as well, Wilson said.

City Council member Scott Olson, chairman of the council's Infrastructure Committee, on Wednesday said the new list of projects are ones that have been identified as priority ones that the city can get moving on as it prepares for more major reconstruction projects in upcoming years of the 10-year spending program.

Come next month, he said the city will release the street-fix priority list for the last eight years of the Paving for Progress program, a list devised with the help of a laser analysis of city streets.

'It should help us prioritize projects in a fair way so we attack the worst first,' Olson said. 'People will be able to see the ranking of their street and follow it as it moves up the list. It should make for some interesting conversation.'

Olson said he hears from some residents who wonder why the city program hasn't arrived at their street already.

'They feel their street is the worst in the city,' he said.

The 2015 list of projects is as follows:

Projects already started:

Fourth Avenue SE from Fifth Street to 19th Street.

Eighth Avenue SW from 10th Street to Seventh Street.

11th Avenue SE from Third Street to Fourth Street.

19th Street SE from Eighth Avenue to Glenway Drive.

20th Street NW from Burch Avenue to Johnson Avenue.

26th Street SE from McCarthy Road to Parkwood Drive.

Auburn Drive SW from 12th Avenue to First Avenue.

Coe Road from Center Point Road to A Avenue.

Diagonal Drive SW from Interstate 380 to the west approach to the Eighth Avenue bridge.

Edgewood Road NW from Johnson Avenue to E Avenue.

Garden Drive SE from Washington Avenue to Grande Avenue.

Glass Road NE from Wenig Road to Edgewood Road.

Projects to begin:

Seventh Street SE from Eighth Avenue to Seventh Avenue.

Seventh Street SE from Sixth Avenue to Fifth Avenue.

Seventh Street SE from Third Avenue to First Avenue.

Eighth Street SE from Eighth Avenue to Third Avenue.

30th Street SE from Seely Avenue to Crestview Drive.

35th Street SE from Mount Vernon Road to Dalewood Avenue.

36th Street SE from Mount Vernon Road to White Oak Road.

B Avenue NW from Eighth Street to Highland Drive.

Cherry Hill Road SW from Johnson Avenue to First Avenue.

Crestridge Avenue SW from Broadmore Road to First Avenue.

Dalewood Avenue SE from 34th Street to 35th Street.

Dairydale Court SE from 32nd Street to Knoll Street.

Kenrich Drive SW at Wilson Avenue.

Mansfield Avenue SE from 30th Street to 31st Street.

Meadowlark Lane NW from First Avenue to Skyline Drive.

Midway Drive NW from Peace Avenue to Alma Drive.

Ravenwood Terrace NW from Edgewood Road to 29th Street.

West Post Road water main work in advance of 2016 road reconstruction.

West Post Road SW from Ruhd Street to Decatur Street.

Wilson Avenue SW from West Post Road to Troy Street.

Zelda Drive NW from Midway Drive to 400 Zelda Drive.