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Question: How does Lawrence choose which streets and pipes to fix, and what is left waiting?
- How projects are ranked: each project is scored on ten criteria and reviewed by a city committee. But money is tied to its source: water and sewer rates pay only for utility work, and a 0.3% sales tax pays for streets. A project's score alone does not decide whether it gets funded.
- Streets: average condition is 62.3 out of 100, against a target of 70; neighborhood streets average 56.7. The city puts the backlog at $85-105 million. Over 2027-2031, $51.6 million of street, curb and sidewalk maintenance is listed as unfunded.
- Water mains: 452 miles, 68 of them cast iron. The current program replaces roughly 13-19 miles every five years, which implies a 120- to 180-year replacement cycle.
- Lead lines: nearly none (2). About 130 galvanized lines must be replaced by about 2037 under federal rules, at an estimated $0.9-1.2 million. No line item for this appears in the five-year plan.
- Sewer and water upkeep is mostly funded, backed by rate increases of about 7.9% a year in 2027 and 2028.
Options discussed, with rough costs: fund the full street program (+$38.8M over five years); add the curb program ($11.7M); move water-main replacement to a 100-year cycle (+$6.3M over five years); plan for galvanized-line replacement (about $1M).