Jordi Gassó Photo
“Allocation Committee” at work.
At least nine city streets will be repaved and another 12 patched in places under a plan drawn up by city public works and transit officials.
The officials brought the tentative list this past Thursday afternoon to a meeting of the city’s Resource Allocation Committee, which the Board of Alders created in the summer of 2012 with the intention of establishing a more transparent way to divvy up city resources.
The tentative list prioritizes streets for a planned $800,000 paving project this fiscal year.
“We’re looking to stretch the city’s dollar to the nth degree and maximize its benefits,” said public works chief Doug Arndt, who drew up the list.
He emphasized that this list is not final; he’s taking feedback into consideration before presenting a final version this coming week. Click here to view the tentative list.
Annex Alder Alphonse Paolillo Jr. noted at Thursday’s meeting that close to half the city’s wards are not included in the list. Alders and city officials have clashed numerous times in recent years over how these decisions are made.
“I would call it a work in progress and something that more discussion needs to happen on,” Paolillo said.
He asked Arndt at the meeting how he ranked the streets. In part, Arndt said, he looks at “pavement condition index,” or PCI, a numerical rating from 0 to 100 that indicates the physical integrity of a road or sidewalk. The lower the number, the poorer the conditions. It’s a good guiding light, Arndt (pictured on the left) told the Independent, but not “the be-all and end-all of decision making.”
Other factors, such as heavy traffic and proximity to public services, can play a definitive role in these selections, as well.
“You don’t want to go off into a ward with a quiet little street that there’s no real traffic on, which may be in poor repair but may not be as critical as a street near a school or near a hospital that’s carrying a lot more traffic,” deputy chief administrative officer Jennifer Pugh explained later.
Paolillo Jr., a voting committee member, objected to taking the PCI “out of the equation” for some streets. He argued it could lead to an inequitable allocation of work and resources, leaving out some wards that need repaved streets.
“Work can happen throughout the city using those ratings,” said Paolillo (at left in photo, with Dwight Alder Frank Douglass). “If you have a 60 rather than a 40, you want to clarify” that other variables mean you need to pave that road.
Arndt said the project budget contains a 20 percent contingency reserve for unanticipated costs. If that money remains untouched, it could go toward fulfilling some of the aldermanic paving requests that can’t make the cut this year.
While these separate requests “don’t necessarily take precedence” over projects deemed more pressing, Pugh said, incorporating them into the work plan ensures a more even allotment of projects.
The issue of geographical distribution also permeated discussion at the meeting about traffic-calming solutions related to the Complete Streets program, which seeks to ensure traffic safety. City transit chief Doug Hausladen (at right in photo, with Beverly Hills Alder Richard Furlow) said he’s drawing up a list of proposed low-cost measures to rein in spending.
Department of Transportation, Traffic and Parking
His example, he suggested adding curb extensions with painted surfaces and planters to Green Hill Terrace — short-term implementations that could render more expensive engineered solutions unnecessary. (Read more about that here.)
Hausladen will soon present 10 to 20 project traffic-calming recommendations to the committee, each between $10,000 and $20,000, or around 40 percent of the Complete Streets $500,000 yearly budget.
Alders advised Hausladen to obtain community feedback on the projects and avoid focusing too much on one particular ward. If not enough attention is paid to other areas that need similar or more attention, predicted Dwight Alder Frank Douglass, “we’re going to have hell to pay.”
Problem planning misnomers:
Problem 1:
There is no evidence offered in this story that the alders present, or not present, contributed to this process. This is fine, for if they had contributed, they would be in for severe criticism.
If we accept the PCI analogy offered by Arndt, the city will always end up paving the same nine streets, most if not all, have been paved within the last nine years.
Problem 2:
The list of streets needing repair by Arndt's PCI does not match the priority streets list left over by Rob Smuts in 2013.
Problem 3:
The city's FY 2014/15 general fund budget is $508M; the city bond fund is $44.3M, of this only $1.7M which is contributed by the state of CT. is being used for street paving. The city collects in excess of $6M in auto taxes and not one dime is allocated towards street repair. This action is a deceitful disgraceful.
Problem 4:
The engineering department contains a bond fund allocation of $2.1M for complete streets, but none of the complete streets happen to be in the neighborhoods of need.
Problem 5:
"Hausladen will soon present 10 to 20 project traffic-calming recommendations to the committee, each between $10,000 and $20,000, or around 40 percent of the Complete Streets $500,000 yearly budget".
Traffic calming is not a priority over streets which have never been re-paved.
Hausladen's quote of a $500K budget is inaccurate, the true budgeted amount for 2014/15 complete streets is $2.1M. This $2.1M should be reallocated by the BOA to street paving and eliminate the phony 20% contingency.