City Council Approves $4.37 Million Road Project, Eyes $30 Million in Future Repairs

The Inver Grove Heights City Council turned its focus to the city’s 150-mile-long road network during a work session and council meeting on Monday night.

Council members reviewed nearly $30 million in proposed street repairs over the next six years, and approved a $4.37 million street reconstruction project that is set to begin this summer in the city’s South Grove neighborhood.

During a work session held prior to the meeting, City Engineer Tom Kaldunski outlined the city’s priority road projects for 2012-2017, as part of an annual review of the city’s pavement management plan.

The management plan is just one facet of the city’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan, a “guide” that city officials use to plan building, road and other infrastructure projects. While the projects in the pavement plan are among the city’s priorities, the plan itself is non-binding and is frequently adjusted to take into account the ever-changing conditions of city roads, City Administrator Joe Lynch said after the work session.

The projects outlined in the 2012-2017 plan include roughly $21 million in proposed street reconstructions, $3.5 million in proposed mill and overlay projects, $4.1 million in city funding for county road projects and roughly $350,000 annually for crack sealing and seal coating projects.

“It’s purely a guide, it’s kind of a planning tool so that we know what projects we should be getting to, and it helps us look at things from a financial perspective,” Kaldunski said of the five-year pavement management plan. The council is expected to approve the plan sometime this spring, Kaldunski added.

Although the council didn’t take action on the management plan, it did vote unanimously to approve a series of substantial street repair projects in the South Grove neighborhood later this summer.

As part of the estimated $4.37 million project, portions of 69^th Street, Upper 69^th Street, Craig Avenue and Dawn Avenue, among other streets, will be completed reconstructed. The city held a public hearing on the project on March 1, and will begin seeking bids for the project from construction firms. Roughly $2.38 million of the total project cost will be covered by assessments.

2012-2017 STREET RECONSTRUCTION PRIORITIES

City officials reviewed nearly $30 million in planned street repair projects at an Inver Grove Heights City Council work session on Monday. A number of street reconstruction projects were included in the city’s pavement management plan through 2017. Here is a breakdown of which projects the city may take on each year. Projects outlined in the pavement management plan are simply proposals, and can change depending on the city’s budget, priorities and other factors.

 2012 — 65^th Street neighborhood between 65^th and 68^th Streets, east of Babcock Trail
2013 — 78^th Street to 80^th Street, from Claiborne Lane to Delano Circle
2014 — Boyd Avenue neighborhood from South St. Paul to 50^th Street
2015 — Dawn Avenue neighborhood, west of Dawn Avenue from 63^rd Street to 67^th Street
2016 — Upper 55^th Street neighborhood, for all streets south of Upper 55^th Street from Angus Avenue to Audrey Avenue