Jacksonville says it can't afford most of its needed road repairs

[southsider1015]

For a city this big, I haven't saw anything ultra-alarming concerning potholes for the most part. I'll say that in Jax, it don't get much worse than the access road in the back of Gateway where the Travelers Lodge hotel once stood. If yall think that Jax is bad, try some Rustbelt cities like Pittsburgh and Cleveland; They make Jax's roads look like a marble table.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgkquqbl6U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhiYuT_FPzs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4ZlHipRfxY

Jacksonville, like all Florida cities, doesn't need to maintain roads which deal with freezing temperatures, snow, salt, and the other issues of the north.  There's frankly no excuse on why our local roads are in such shape, especially when its known that it's actually cheaper to do regular maintenance (resurfacing) than the big reconstruction projects.

Zero excuse.

[southsider1015]

One concern that I have is that the City of Jacksonville's Standard Construction Specifications have not been updated in ALMOST 20 years:

http://www.coj.net/departments/planning-and-development/development-services-division/city-standard-specifications.aspx

When asked the question about why the City doesn't keep up to date on these types of construction details, the response is "We can't possibly stay on top of these things."  I recommended that the City could simply refer to FDOT standards, details, etc., and again the response was "FDOT updates everything too much, and we can't keep up."

Lake, you've mentioned in the past about FDOT updating their design standards.  Please look no further than COJ, and their decades old design standards.

[thelakelander]

^I agree. It was one thing I was helping Bill Killingsworth with when he was the planning director. Unfortunately, the election cycle came before that effort was fully complete and COJ priorities changed.

[JFman00]

Jacksonville, like all Florida cities, doesn't need to maintain roads which deal with freezing temperatures, snow, salt, and the other issues of the north.  There's frankly no excuse on why our local roads are in such shape, especially when its known that it's actually cheaper to do regular maintenance (resurfacing) than the big reconstruction projects.

Zero excuse.

Heartily agree. "You should see Somalia! It's so much worse there" should not be justification for underfunding a basic government function.

[I-10east]

Meh...Three words. POST SOME VIDEOS; People will say that's it??? Youtube has no 'Jacksonville potholes' videos, so it can't be too concerning. Like I said before to defend myself, I don't see anything consistently alarming in this city of 800+ square miles with potholes, in my experiences driving all over this city....

[downtownbrown]

potholes? POTHOLES??? The mother of all potholes is on South Liberty Street right smack in the downtown Core.  April 11th will be the third anniversary of the hole and the closing of that street.  We had a chat on another discussion about publicly celebrating the event with a "party", and use it to highlight the problem around the city.  I volunteer to help underwrite the cost of signs, social media, tee shirts (The Hole In The Road Gang).  The objective is to shine the light on City Council and the mayor's office for failing to do their duty.  Legislation to fix the hole has been deferred since August, and the General Counsel has been dithering with a lawsuit forever.  looking for an organizer to pull it off and get media attention.  ideas?

[Charles Hunter]

Yeah, 2014-526, appropriating $750,000 to fix the Liberty Hole is listed on the Council's Matters Pending, but was not on the agenda for this week's (Jan. 13) agenda.  At the Urban Core CPAC last week, someone (don't remember who) said it was coming before Council "soon".

[downtownbrown]

deferred in august, September, October, and ignored in November, December, January...

[Bill Hoff]

Many of Jacksonville's most worn-out streets won't be repaved this year unless the city finds more money to boost an anemic roads budget.
Whether that will happen remains to be seen.

A special City Council committee last week scrutinized the city's debt that pays for improvement projects, including road resurfacing, and found at least $6.9 million that could possibly be used to repave more streets. The committee could find out Wednesday whether that money is actually available.

As of now, the city will have just $2 million to spend on resurfacing and maintaining roughly 3,600 miles of roads, compared to the $9.4 million included in last year's budget.

That would cover only 35 of the city's 68 highest-priority projects, and nowhere near the 116 projects it repaved last year.

To make the most out of its limited budget, the city will take on a bundle of smaller-priced projects distributed throughout a wide area of the city.

Taking that approach forces the city to ignore some of its most high-priority needs, which are also some of the most expensive sections of road to repave.

In total, eight of the 10 roads determined to be in the worst shape are not scheduled to be resurfaced this year.

James Little, a resident who lives on Seaboard Avenue on the Westside, said his street is not in particularly bad shape although it is on the city list as one of the worst. He said the road gets a lot of traffic, but he said there are others with more potholes and in worse shape.

"This isn't that bad," Little said. "I've certainly seen worse."

The tight budget also restricts the city from doing preventative maintenance that extends the life of better-conditioned roads and saves taxpayers money in the long run.

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-01-13/story/jacksonville-says-it-cant-afford-most-its-needed-road-repairs

Yeah, but I save $20 per year on my taxes.