East Lamar Boulevard sits near North Davis Drive on Feb. 11 in Arlington. Arlington’s Public Works Department has a budget of 15.2 million for this year’s street maintenance projects.
The city of Arlington’s Public Works Department has a budget of 15.2 million for street maintenance projects this year.
Here’s how street maintenance is funded and what the process of the city’s streets getting fixed and refurbished looks like.
Funding for street maintenance comes from a quarter-cent sales tax that residents approved in 2002, according to a city release. Because the funds are obtained through a tax, the budget can fluctuate by year.
“Our street maintenance budget is from our voter-approved quarter-cent sales tax — essentially, a quarter of each cent has been approved by the voters and that is what we use for our budget,” said Sidney Kelly, assistant director of Public Works.
Kelly said the tax provides about 90% of their budget. According to a city release, the remaining 10% comes from the city’s general fund.
He said road maintenance is extremely important for cities. Kelly called the projects “the backbone of our roadway network.”
“What the street maintenance does — it helps to keep our roadways manageable, satisfactory,” he said.
The work that the department does is called programs. These programs include mill and overlay, concrete panel replacement and roadway reclamation, among others.
The city uses a pavement survey to annually monitor roads and decide which streets and areas require maintenance. Kelly said Arlington has more than 3000 lane miles of pavement, and because of that, they can’t scan every area in one year.
He said instead the city is split into thirds, and that is how the yearly survey is done.
“One year we will do northern Arlington, year two central Arlington, year three southern Arlington and then we do it over and over again, it’s continuous,” Kelly said.
Kelly said the survey scores the pavement from 0 to 100 and compared it to school grades, ideally being closer to 100. There is also an overall condition index, which measures streets and is also graded on a 100-point scale.
Residents can also contact Public Works by phone, submit a street maintenance request through the city website or through the Ask Arlington app. Kelly said they love it when residents contact them about issues since residents are the city’s eyes and ears.
With both surveys in and resident requests compiled, a committee is called together to go over potential projects and the work required from them.
“Once the proposed streets are cleared, they’re green-lighted,” Kelly said. “Then they move into construction, they move into truly aligning the budget until we can see those projects actually get constructed and completed.”
In the upcoming May 2 special election, residents will have the chance to vote for the reauthorization of the street maintenance sales tax that funds the majority of the Public Works Department’s street maintenance.
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