Pave it: City plans 2012 street repairs
Published 1:32 pm Thursday, February 16, 2012
The city of Austin is set for another busy year of street repairs.
City officials held a public meeting Wednesday night to inform residents on street projects. Some of the most affected portions of town this summer will be near Banfield Elementary School and near the area of the East Side Lake Dam and Ankeny’s Mini Mart. Other portions of town affected will include:
—Ninth Street NW, from First to Eighth Avenue
—22nd Avenue SW, from 12th to 16th Street
—19th Street SE, from Oakland to Fourth Avenue
—14th Street NW, from Oakland to the top of Eighth Avenue (residents will only be assessed for sidewalk repairs)
—Fourth Street NW, from Fourth to 10th Avenue (maintenance and sidewalk repairs only)
—10th Place NE, from 11th Drive to 17th Street (residents only assessed for mill and overlay at $20 per foot)
—16th Street SE, from Oakland Avenue to Fourth Avenue (residents will not be assessed for repairs)
Some of the sections that receive heavy traffic, like 14th Street NW — which receives more than 10,000 commuters each day — will be clearly marked with detour routes, according to Assistant City Engineer Stephen Lang
While it appears as though there are more projects than last year, Lang said most of the repairs are minor, like milling and resurfacing the blacktop. Where full-scale street and sidewalk repairs will be completed, residents will be charged the same rate as last year at $38.25 per linear foot of property front. Sidewalk repairs will be from $100 to $125 per panel.
Lang doubts any commercial businesses will be affected by the repairs. The city does not have a total cost estimate at this time; however, repairs will be completed from May to the beginning of November.
“We typically start mid-May and go through the first week in November,” Lang said. “That’s kind of our construction window.”
Like last year, residents will have four options to pay for repairs. They can pay in full with no interest, pay half and put half on taxes at 4.5 percent interest, put all costs on property taxes at 4.5 percent interest, or some residents may qualify for age and income guidelines that will defer costs to the value of their homes if and when they sell.