Council OKs bigger paving budget

Pittsburgh City Council gave the green light Tuesday to bulked-up paving plans for 2018, freeing enough money for a few extra miles of resurfaced bliss.

Members agreed to shift just more than $720,000 to the streets budget amid a wicked pothole season. That brings the city’s resurfacing budget to nearly $16.8 million — enough to redo about 67 miles, according to prior estimates from chief operations officer Guy Costa.

“The bottom line is, that amount of [extra] money will probably pave about three miles of roads,” said Mike Gable, the public works director.

Beyond that, utility companies are due to resurface an additional seven miles this year as part of their own infrastructure work, Mr. Costa has said. Tangling with extreme freeze-and-thaw cycles, the city logged more than 3,700 pothole complaints from early January through mid-February alone.

“I don’t know that we can ever be 100 percent proficient in what needs to be done, but we can make every honest effort and attempt that we can,” council President Bruce Kraus said.

To keep pace with road deterioration, the city should see about 90 miles of asphalt resurfacing each year, Mr. Gable said. The figure last year reached 75 miles, including work done by utility companies when they tore up road ways, he said.

That was up from 58 miles in 2016 and 54 miles in 2015, Mr. Gable said. The city has about 900 miles of asphalt streets.

Meanwhile, hot mixed asphalt — which allows more permanent repairs than the cold patch used in chillier weather — could be available to city crews as early as Thursday, Mr. Gable said.

“Nice, hot, steamy, sticky asphalt,” Mayor Bill Peduto wrote in a tweet March 2. He said it’s the stuff “Pittsburgh drivers dream about.”

Some money reallocated for extra paving had been tagged for additional consultation work involving the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. A panel has determined that work isn’t necessary.

Much of the other money was set aside for projects that are closed or not immediately needed, according to the Peduto administration and council. The administration had sought about $800,000 in budget reallocations to paving, nearly all of which council approved.

“This is not an uncommon practice. It’s putting stagnant dollars to good use,” Mr. Kraus said. The city budgeted just

more than $100 million for overall capital and about $555 million for operating needs in 2018.

Officials are crafting a list of streets to be resurfaced. That list should be finalized Monday, said Karina Ricks, director of the city Department of Mobility and Infrastructure.

She said some larger resurfacing work should begin this month.

“In addition to resurfacing, we are going to expand work on sealing streets [making them last longer and reducing the chance for potholes to form] and partially resurface portions of streets where an accumulation of potholes has emerged [known as mechanical patching],” Ms. Ricks said via email.

“These efforts, together with the robust paving program, will add life to our streets,” she said.