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Work starting soon on residential streets

Posted at 8:56 PM, Jul 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-25 22:02:27-04

CORPUS CHRISTI – Residential streets are about to get a face-lift, and while these aren’t the worst streets, they do need repairs.

“We did these rebuilds first because of funding,” said City Engineering Department spokeswoman Michelle Villarreal-Leschper.  “We had more limited funding to work with, so we tried to stretch that dollar.  So we did it on streets where we knew they weren’t going to need that extensive work.”

As part of the Residential Street Rebuild Program, 34 city streets were picked for the first round of work.  The projects will be paid for with Bond 2016 money.

They were selected based on their condition; on scale of one to 100, these streets scored less than 55.  Work will happen across the city starting with District 2 and District 5; that includes the Downtown, Del Mar and South Side areas.

These projects are rebuilds, not complete reconstructions, like the test projects on Rogerson and Ralston.

“They’re going to get new street pavement, but they require limited curb and gutter, limited utility work,” said Villarreal-Leschper.

Residents on Brock Drive were excited to hear their street was among the first to be rebuilt.  However, one resident who is still dealing with the work on Ralston offers caution.

“Oh my goodness, said Betty Rhodes.  “They didn’t know what they were doing, first of all.  This company had never done this before.”

The Ralston test project had a number of problems, and isn’t finished several months past the expected completion date.

“Lousy work, slow work,” said Rhodes.  “They’re slower than molasses in January.”

City officials said there were lessons learned from the test projects.  The city hired different contractors hired this time, and officials also learned the value of communication, saying they’ll keep residents better informed.

“We have to keep that constant line of communication open between the residents, the inspectors, and the contractors,” said Villarreal-Leschper.

Work is slated to start in early September, contractors have 10 months to finish the job.  Villarreal-Leschper says the city will hold public meetings in District 2 and District 5 in August to let residents know what to expect.