EUGENE, Ore. (KMTR) -- Eugene voters overwhelmingly passed the city's second street repair bond measure on election night, funneling another $43 million dollars into local road work. But what exactly will crews be working on?
Eugene's first street repair bond was for about $35.9 million dollars. The money helped the city tackle repair of some major streets including Coburg Road, Martin Luther King Junior Drive, River Road and Hilyard Street.
While most of the first covered the city’s arteries, the second bond will have a bit of a different focus on Eugene’s roads.
Work paid for by the second bond will mostly target neighborhood streets that aren’t as well traveled as the main thoroughfares.
One street that will see a revamp under the new bond is Centennial Loop off Martin Luther King Drive. It’s a street that most people don’t drive everyday, but is still an important route for hundreds.
Centennial Loop is covered with what's called 'alligator cracking', meaning the road surface looks like alligator skin. If it’s not fixed, giant potholes will begin to form. Once potholes emerge, the road becomes tougher for crews to resurface.
According to Eugene Public Works, rebuilding a road costs four to five times more than resurfacing a road.
“We will be able to get to streets like Centennial Loop and a number of other streets in neighborhoods and . . . the work, it's a big liability. It's part of the life style here that we have good streets all of the way home and this bond measure will let us get to that level streets,” says Eric Jones, a spokesman for Eugene Public Works.
A total of 76 different road projects will be covered under the new bond. Some big ones include 1st Avenue, 13th Avenue from Chambers to Washington, Coburg Road near the EWEB on- and off-ramps, downtown Lincoln Street and Garfield from 6th Avenue to Roosevelt Boulevard.
The current road repair bond is funded through 2013. The projects under the second bond will begin in 2014. For complete list of all of that work, click the following link:
http://www.eugene-or.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6567.
