‘Paving for Progress’ to touch 150 miles of Cedar Rapids streets in next decade

CEDAR RAPIDS — Now you can see if the city's 10-year, $180-million, Paving for Progress street fix-up program will be coming to your block or neighborhood.

On Friday, the city unveiled its 10-year plan that details which streets will get work, what kind of work will take place there and when the work is slated to take place.

Go to cityofcr.com/pavingforprogress to get to the city's interactive map with the proposed projects shown on it. Click on individual project to see details.

City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said Friday the 10-year program, which is funded by the 1-percent local-option sales tax, is vital for the city to preserve and improve the condition of its streets. Much of the work would have not been possible without the voter-approved sales tax, he said.

'Without this proactive approach, our roads would continue to deteriorate and end up costing significantly more,' Pomeranz said.

Read More: Paving for Progress website

City Council member Scott Olson, chairman of the council's Infrastructure Committee, said Friday the 10-year plan includes a mix of street maintenance, rehabilitation and street reconstruction, the latter of which is the most expensive work to do.

He said the goal at the end of 10 years is to increase the percentage of city streets that rate as good or very good and decrease the percentage rated as poor or very poor.

In a presentation this week to the council's Infrastructure Commission, Doug Wilson, the city's capital improvement project manager, said that 40 percent of the Paving for Progress funds will go to street reconstruction, 42 percent for street rehabilitation and 18 percent for street maintenance.

He said the 10-year plan was put together after a laser analysis of city streets coupled with field inspections by the Public Works Department staff.

The analysis found 30 percent of the city's local streets in poor or very poor condition and 35 percent of the city's arterial streets in those conditions. At the same time, 50 percent of local streets were found to be in good or very good condition while 45 percent of the city's arterial streets are.

Without the 10-year program, 90 percent of the city's streets would qualify as poor or very poor, Wilson told the committee.

In 10 years, he said the city expects to touch 150 miles of its 600 miles of streets with some kind of work. At the end of the period, more than 50 percent of miles driven in the city will be on streets that have been improved, according to the plan.

Olson said work will be left to do after 10 years, but he said the city hopes that Paving for Progress is sufficiently successful that local voters may be willing to continue the program in the future.

Voters approved the sales tax for the Paving for Progress in November 2013, with the 10-year-long collection of funds beginning July 1, 2014.

In 2014, the city launched a 'quick-start' effort to get some easier projects underway.