A city street project to rehabilitate Central Avenue South is scheduled to get $3 million next year from Kent’s business and occupation (B&O) tax.
The City Council approved a list of street projects for 2015 to be paid for by the tax at a Dec. 9 meeting. The tax is projected to bring in about $5 million next year.
“I think that’s going to be a great project,” Councilman Dennis Higgins said at a Public Works Committee meeting. “It’s much needed and we’ve heard many comments from the community through the years about the condition of that road so it will be wonderful to have it finally repaired.”
The street has many cracks, rutting and patches and requires reconstruction and an asphalt overlay. Crews will do the work between Willis Street and South 262nd Street, about a one-mile stretch.
“That is the major project we would accomplish for 2015,” City Public Works Director Tim LaPorte said at a budget workshop. “The difficulty for South Central is we have to make sure we get all of the utilities out of the way. We hope we can get all of the utilities out of the way so we can accomplish that this summer.”
LaPorte said the work is expected to be spread out over two years. He asked the council for early approval of the list in order to notify utility companies that they will need to relocate wires and cables.
The project’s total cost estimate is about $5 million. Kent has received federal grants of $1.8 million to help pay for the work along with the B&O tax.
At the request of the council’s Public Works Committee, LaPorte distributed the project list to the Kent Chamber of Commerce prior to approval. City officials didn’t get any negative feedback about the proposed list so the committee and council voted to approve it.
The project list also includes $455,000 for asphalt overlay for 71st Place South, 72nd Avenue South, 132nd Avenue Southeast, Southeast 216th Street, South 228th Street, South 234th Street, Reith Road and West James Street.
The other projects include $595,000 for concrete sidewalks replacements; $300,000 for traffic island rehab along Pacific Highway South; and $226,000 for line striping along streets.
About 11 planter islands along Pacific Highway South on the West Hill need to be replaced, LaPorte said.
“The planters were not put in correctly they’ve been trashed by trucks riding over the top,” LaPorte said. “We need to start over with topsoil. The irrigation has been busted up by trucks.”
Councilman Jim Berrios asked LaPorte if the city is required to put plantings in those traffic islands.
“There isn’t a requirement but it looks very attractive,” LaPorte said.
Council President Dana Ralph said the highway needs to look better.
“It’s an economic development issue,” Ralph said. “That stretch of road is all commercial and all businesses. The quality of that streetscape is subpar at best.”
Berrios said he just wanted to make sure similar replacement work didn’t have to be done again.
“My thought is it’s not good use of money if we have to fix it up again with another $300,000 in six years from now,” Berrios said.
A new design that would make it tougher for trucks to drive over the islands is under consideration, said Derek Matheson, city chief administrative officer.
Councilwoman Brenda Fincher added the traffic islands need to be attractive.
“If you think about businesses coming to the area, if it is not attractive you are not going to attract businesses,” Fincher said. “So not only are trucks driving over them, which is dangerous, but it also is something that will help bring in more business because you don’t want to move into an area that doesn’t look nice.”
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