Help is on the way for deteriorating streets and roadways in Taylor.
For fiscal year 2022-23, citizens can expect to see new employees for street maintenance, a significant effort to address maintenance and repairs of streets in serious condition, as well as milling and overlay and other enhancements to some major roads in town, city officials said.
“The streets and roads in the City of Taylor are an important part of our infrastructure,” said City Manager Brian LaBorde in his monthly newsletter message to the community. “And your city council members have approved significant investments in road and street repair in the 2022-23 annual budget.”
As part of the 2022-23 budget, approximately $500,000 will be used from the city’s Transportation Utility Fee (TUF) for materials and personnel to fund approximately five miles of repairs on roads throughout the city this year, said Public Works Director Jim Gray.
TUF is a fee on commercial and residential units in Taylor that was approved by the City Council in 2016 for street repair and maintenance.
The repairs this year will be done to streets with a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of 16-21, which are pavements deemed in serious condition, due to subbase failure, which causes cracking, potholes and other damage caused by the weight of vehicular traffic as well as the climate, Gray confirmed.
LaBorde said this initiative represents Phase 3 of the city’s Level-Up Program, which the public works department established after a 2020 street study “to provide restorative maintenance on street sections to improve their conditions until major reconstruction will take place,” said LaBorde. “In this case, repairing means to bring localized areas of pavement failure to drivable conditions,” LaBorde added. “The program is intended to improve streets for one to three years.”
The first two phases have already addressed roads with a PCI of less than 16, which includes those that are in failed condition.
“The streets that were in the worst condition were addressed in the first two rounds of the program,” LaBorde said.
“We now have passed through the streets that were failed, and they are still failed, but now they have this little topcoat on them that makes them easier to drive on,” Gray said. “And they will still continue to fall apart, but we have least made the ride better because we didn’t do a total rebuild.”
In addition, three new employees will be hired this year to help with the Level Up Program and overall street maintenance, bringing this division to eight employees, Gray said. In August, the city council also approved a $4 million project to mill and overlay several major roadways through town, including Second and Fourth streets as well as Mallard Lane, which will also receive “base repairs, pavement markings, curb ramps, sidewalks, and metal beam guard fences.
Gray said these efforts are all part of a threepart strategy to address the conditions of roads in Taylor. “We have the Level Up, which is our lowest level of work,” he said. “It’s like putting a bandaid on, and its making it where it rides better, and if your road has been bumpy with potholes for forty years and we come in and do this, you are a lot happier.” “Then, if it’s a mill and overlay, that’s on a street that’s in pretty good shape, but the asphalt top coat may be raveling and having some issues with that two-inches of asphalt, so we will come in and mill that two inches down and put a fresh two inches of asphalt down,” Gray said.
“And then you will have the total rebuilt program which is normally the bond programs,” Gray said. “And that is the one that we just finished where we did five streets completely, where they got five streets with new sidewalks, curb and gutter, drainage, new water lines, sewer lines, new base materials and base materials on top.”
Gray said work has recently been completed on a multimillion-dollar bond issue passed in 2019 on sections of roads through Taylor, including West Lake Drive and North Lynn Street.
