Advertisement City looks at possibility of paying to fix substandard streets Share Shares Copy Link Copy

There's a muddy mess outside Bernie Turkel's home near 95th and Center."My wife walked across the street the other day, fell in a chuckhole, sprained her ankle," Turkel said. "It's been one thing after another, and it's tearing up the cars and bumping around."Omaha Public Works officials estimate 360 lane miles of substandard roadway exist across the city.Substandard roads are those that weren't built to city code years ago when developers started the neighborhoods. Eventually, the roads deteriorate to the point the city will no longer service them. Then, residents have several options: to have the city grind up the road and leave as is, to pay for a fresh coat of asphalt, or to pay a higher cost to have the road brought up to current standards."It's a very, very challenging issue," city engineer Todd Pfitzer said.Pfitzer said in older neighborhoods, it's up to the residents to pay for the full service streets, because original residents never did when they bought their homes."The vast majority of people in this city live in a subdivision that was done and built to current standards," Pfitzer said. "So most of the people in this city have already spent the $8,000 to $10,000 per lot to put the concrete in."Many of these roads are in areas that were once SIDs that have since been annexed by the city."Either they pay out of their pocket, or the rest of the taxpayers say, 'We agree with you. We're sorry this happened. We'll all team together and pay for it,'" Pfitzer said. "And obviously, all I can do is present the numbers and those are some big, big decisions.As more and more of these roads reach the point of disrepair, for the first time, the city is looking at how much it will cost to fix all of them and if tax dollars can foot part of the bill."It appears that it's going to be over $250 million," Pfitzer said.“The citizens are kind of caught between a rock and hard place, but at the same time it’s unfair for the city to pay for it all,” City Council member Franklin Thompson said.Many of these substandard streets are in Thompson’s area- district 6. In fact, Thompson himself said he lives in an neighborhood that paid for new asphalt many years ago. The Public Works department will give a briefing to several City Council members on Tuesday. Pfitzer said they've just started to crunch the numbers. It could be a matter of moving money around or a bond issue. Pfitzer said money from the gas tax is not able to be used for these residential roads. It is only available for projects on major arterial roads.