Rough Roads
A rig travels down 12th Avenue West last week. The road is a top priority for the city.
Columbia Falls city streets need about $2.2 million in work over the next few years, according to a recent report by public works director Tyler Bradshaw.
One of the top roads needing repair is 12th Ave West from Burger King south to the Truck Route, Bradshaw noted.
“It’s in really poor shape,” Bradshaw told city council members last month.
Not only does it need new pavement, which has been battered by heavy truck traffic over the years, the former Plum Creek administrative offices, known as the Cedar Palace need city sewer and water services.
Glacier Medical Associates is purchasing the offices and nearby land for a new medical facility there and will eventually need city sewer and water.
All told, it’s estimated that fixing the street and bringing utilities to the Cedar Palace will cost about $1.683 million.
Other roads that need work very soon are Third Street East to Nucleus Avenue and Fourth Street East. Fourth Street East doesn’t see much traffic, Bradshaw noted, but it’s almost dirt.
Van’s Avenue is another rough road — it actually has old timber products poking through the surface.
About 71 percent of the city’s roads will need some sort of work in the next 10 years. The city has 39 miles of roads in its system — 34 miles are paved — the rest are unpaved alleyways.
The public works department recently mapped all the city streets using Iworq software, which helps assess each roadway, its condition and future repair.
Some streets don’t need much — chip sealing is recommended for 8 miles of roadway. About 17 percent of the roads should last 20 years.
But there are a fair number that need overlays or complete reconstruction fairly soon — in the next six years or so.
Paying for them is another matter as well. The city looked for federal help to rebuild 13th Street in front of the high school and up Fourth Avenue to the Truck Route, but it wasn’t awarded the grant.
Still, the hope is the street projects identified in the report can be completed in the next 10 years.
Councilman Darin Fisher noted the resort tax, if it’s approved by voters, would set aside some funds for city streets.