Dallas To Spend $40 Million To Repair Limited Number Of Streets

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Currently the City of Dallas maintains almost 12,000 lane miles worth of streets, unfortunately most of them are in bad shape and rated below average. This year, the city council beefed up the street department's budget so that crews can begin a variety of maintenance and repairs.

The Director of the Street Services department, Dennis Ware, says the plan is to have crews work on about 600 lane miles of street. Ware says the amount of work will vary by location, with some repairs being very small and others consisting of total reconstruction,

"Prep the roadways for the treatment types, so that's normally done in the winter months," he said. "And then springtime is when we have the bulk, lion's share, of all the work, but we have begun."

It's estimated the Dallas street system needs $900 million worth of work just to get them into 'average' shape. City leaders are hoping a billion dollar bond program in 2017 will help meet that goal.

As work begins on a small portion of those streets, Ware said crews would be, "Pulverizing the existing pavement, compacting it, reestablishing the base, and then topping it with two inches of asphalt."

In all, some $40 million will be spent on street repair between now and September.

Ware and his team have divided up the money by district. Crews will be out in full force in March. The council will get an update on the work in June.

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