5.5. SR 03-24-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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B. Locally Funded City Streets - Cities under 5,000 Minnesota's smaller cities - those with populations under 5,000 - are not eligible for any state aid funding for collector or arterial streets, regardless of the traffic volume that these streets support. In theory, the state distribution to the counties through the County State Aid Highway distribution is in part intended to support these roadways, however, in practice there is insufficient funds to finance all small city roadway needs. As a result, city owned roadways in these cities are classified as "municipal streets" in the terminology used by Mn/DOT, and are financed exclusively with revenue sources generated locally, which means the property tax. Findings #B-l: Most small cities are not spending enough on roadway capital improvements to maintain a 50 year life cycle. One of the principal goals of the 2002 City Road andBridge F~mding Survey was to assess the spending trends of Minnesota cities relative to the projected spending that would be required to sustain a life cycle of 50 years. In this report, we borrow from the methodology applied by Greg Isakson, the Goodhue County Engineer, who has established this analytical method for determining the life cycle needs of Minnesota's system of county roads. The survey returned data on 108 cities under 5,000 in population on the question of each city's spending level for the three principal roadway construction/maintenance activities discussed in this report: 1) construction/reconstruction (which implies initial grading or regrading the roadway surface) which occurs once in a 50 year life cycle; 2) overlaying the pre-existing surface (which we assume to occur twice in a 50 year life cycle) and 3) sealcoating the surface (which we assume to occur six times over the 50 year life cycle). Figure 27 presents a "typical" life cycle construction and maintenance activity schedule that would allow a paved roadway to last for 50 years. Figure 27 "Typical" 50 Year Life Cycle Roadway Construction and Maintenance Activity Schedule Activity Interval Year Construction 1 Sealcoat 2 3 Sealcoat 7 10 Overlay 7 17 Sealcoat 2 19 Sealcoat 7 26 Overlay 7 33 Sealcoat 2 35 Sealcoat 7 42 Regrade 7 49 To identify projected costs, the methodology applied in this analysis requires that a typical cost per mile be estimated for the three activities that comprise the construction and maintenance schedule. In this analysis, it is estimated that the per-mile cost of regrading is $200,000 per mile, the cost of an overlay is $40,000 per mile, and the cost of a sealcoat is $5,000 per mile. (These values are consistent with the cost estimates used in the county needs study and are on par with all of the cities who reported activity costs.) 29