City has a plan for streets

A 200-foot section of Goodson, at Gallagher, will be torn up and repaved from curb to curb.

By Charles Sercombe
If you’re a typical Hamtramckan, you probably think your street is a disaster.
Most of them are riddled with potholes and old mounds of patches coming apart.
For the first time in who knows when, the city now has a five-year plan outlining which streets will be repaired during this period.
Chances are, though, it’s not likely going to be your street. Because of limited resources, the city can’t possibly afford to repair anywhere near the majority of city streets during the next five years, considering that the estimated cost to repair a street is $1.5 million to $2 million per mile.
The city receives a little over $1 million a year in Act 51 monies from the state to make repairs to streets. The city’s road repair fund has a $4 million surplus, which begs the question: Why have city officials been holding onto it instead of spending it on street repairs?
There are 37 miles of roads in Hamtramck and most of them are rated in fair to poor condition, according to a recent study performed by Hennessey Engineers, Inc.
It’s an exhaustive report, called a Transportation Asset Management Plan, that maps out a plan of attack for the city.
Most of our roads are asphalt, with just a little over 5 miles being concrete. That’s unfortunate because concrete lasts much longer than asphalt.
In the good news side of things, the city has wasted no time in starting up repairs.
This year all of Hanley was milled down the middle of the lane and will soon get a new layer of asphalt. Just down the street at Goodson and Gallagher, a 200-foot section of Goodson will be replaced curb-to curb, and new water lines will be installed.
Next spring, it’s Lumpkin’s turn for a total reconstruction from Poland to Caniff.
Also next year Holbrook from Jos. Campau to Lumpkin will be reconstructed. That will cost $950,000.
In 2017, Hamtramck Dr., which is nightmare to navigate without hitting a pothole, will be reconstructed from Jos. Campau to Conant. The cost: $900,000.
After the next five years cycles through, there is a plan to repair eight more sections of streets over a five-year period, unless something else pops up.
There are a couple of ways the city could speed up repairs by either finding new grants or asking voters to pass special tax millages to produce extra funding. The federal government has been issuing several grants over the past eight years to help communities build up infrastructure support, but it’s unclear if that will continue.
And asking voters to pay more in taxes through a special millage is always a dicey venture.