Kansas City compiling best and worst roads list

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - This fiscal year, the pubic works department will quadruple its street maintenance budget from $4 million to more than $18 million, paving the way for the city's biggest street resurfacing project starting in late spring.

In preparation, the city is putting together a list of its best and worst streets.

Kerry Kanatzar, the city's street preservation manager, said Tuesday that drivers will have to be patient as repairs begin.

"We look to be doing more lane miles than we've done in several years past," Kanatzar said.

Last summer, Kansas City taxpayers passed a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for park improvements, freeing up millions of dollars more to spend on road improvements. The new budget means the city can now resurface every street in the city every 25 years.
      
The public works department estimates about 50 percent of the city's street have already been resurfaced.

Kanatzar said that less than 10 percent of the city's roads are in need of immediate repair.

The streets that will get resurfaced first will be those that are about to crumble and erode under the pressure of passing cars.

City officials have completed the list for streets north of the river. The preliminary list for streets south of the river will be finished by the end of January and posted on the city's website.

COMPLETE LIST: 2013 North Street List - http://tinyurl.com/bj5za4g

PRELIMINARY LIST: 2013 South Street List - http://tinyurl.com/bhnqmks

In 2007, the National Transportation Safety Board rated Kansas City as one of the worst cities for street conditions.

The city is off of that list for now. It is a list Kansas City hopes never to make again.