Thursday, January 07, 2016
What’s actually being done to fix Cleveland’s roads
This blog post is a response from Cleveland City Council President Kevin J. Kelley to a prior blog post by Angie Schmitt entitled "What Would It Take To Fix Cleveland's Roads."
I am very disappointed that I cannot attend [January 8th's forum]. The topic is very timely, and we should never stop talking about the condition of our infrastructure. But I was a bit surprised to read [Angie Schmitt's] article posted on the City Club website. This article discusses the condition of Cleveland’s streets, but makes no mention of the new approach that Council worked out with the Jackson Administration last year. As you may recall, last year, Cleveland City Council worked with Mayor Jackson to completely overhaul our approach to residential resurfacing in the city of Cleveland. Council created a systematic, data-driven approach that guarantees that the worst 5 percent of streets would be resurfaced every year, leading to all residential streets being resurfaced every 20 years. We also commissioned a new Pavement Management Study which will quantify the condition of all residential streets allowing us to focus on the worst first. Further, acknowledging the scope of the challenge, we more than doubled the budget allocation for street resurfacing, up to $10 million annually. Finally, we collaborated with Cuyahoga County and NOACA to further leverage our local match dollars, leading to over $20 million in resurfacing work in 2015.
Watch Council President Kelley's remarks from his most recent City Club forum, including a detailed plan to fix Cleveland's roads.
