Road Bond Spending

[PWL73316]

So this is more personal information than I usually give out, but they are redoing the roads all over my neighborhood (Bryn Mawr) and other streets between 132nd and 120th, Blondo and Burt. Big signs up about how this is our tax dollars at work, yada yada.

One big problem: The roads were perfectly fine before. I'm not saying they were perfect, but they were smooth, no big potholes, sinking areas, rough transitions, nothing like that.

Meanwhile, my wife and I go down to CWS, and Nicholas street is close to impassable in places, with every nearby road shot through with potholes that measure in feet, both in width and depth. Omaha Scanner is tweeting out about broken ankles every day because the sidewalks are breaking up. It's the same all over downtown and midtown.

If we raised $200 million in additional bonds and are going to spend it all on already-fine suburban roads as some kind of political reward for Aimee Melton, or whatever the poor reasoning is, that's an absolute disgrace, to be frank. We don't even want this construction, it's more of a hassle to have perfect fine roads torn up and rebuilt than anything. Almost all of this money should have been spent on Eastern Omaha and arterial streets, with next-to-nothing for suburban neighborhoods.

[ita]

So this is more personal information than I usually give out, but they are redoing the roads all over my neighborhood (Bryn Mawr) and other streets between 132nd and 120th, Blondo and Burt. Big signs up about how this is our tax dollars at work, yada yada.

One big problem: The roads were perfectly fine before. I'm not saying they were perfect, but they were smooth, no big potholes, sinking areas, rough transitions, nothing like that.

Meanwhile, my wife and I go down to CWS, and Nicholas street is close to impassable in places, with every nearby road shot through with potholes that measure in feet, both in width and depth. Omaha Scanner is tweeting out about broken ankles every day because the sidewalks are breaking up. It's the same all over downtown and midtown.

If we raised $200 million in additional bonds and are going to spend it all on already-fine suburban roads as some kind of political reward for Aimee Melton, or whatever the poor reasoning is, that's an absolute disgrace, to be frank. We don't even want this construction, it's more of a hassle to have perfect fine roads torn up and rebuilt than anything. Almost all of this money should have been spent on Eastern Omaha and arterial streets, with next-to-nothing for suburban neighborhoods.

Thank you for bringing this issue up. If this issue piques your interest, check out our City's most recent CIP. You will see the same issue with the uneven use of funds for road/intersection widenings in west Omaha versus improving street design or making pedestrian/bike infrastructure improvements.

https://planning.cityofomaha.org/capita ... nt-program

[Busguy2010]

Just saw theres one of those "your dollars at work" signs at the site of construction at 76th & Dodge. I wondered what they were really doing there, if they were improving the flow, or just renewing the concrete. I hope they take out the bump-out in the island to allow more people to use the double turn lane. Used to hold me up all the time. Takes 2 or 3 cycles to get through which equates to up to like 7 or 8 minutes just waiting. I actually hope they put in a median to prevent people from taking a left out from Chik fil A and Lowes. That always grinded my years when people take a left out of there when the road has been marked for left and right lanes to exit. The lane paint they put down gets faded after just a few months because of how busy that parking lot is.

[Dundeemaha]

I think the worst roads in the city are in the area between Harney & Leavenworth, 33rd to 36th Street. I don't think they're even in the plan to get fixed.

This street view is from 2019, and they're just worse now: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.2526036 ... 384!8i8192

[Busguy2010]

I'd vote for insert name neighborhood street in North Omaha. Ames Avenue would be a great one to get totally redone.

On the 76th/Rose Blumpkin I was talking about, that one is actually justified.

[PWL73316]

North O gets nothing because 132nd and Blondo suburban cul-de-sacs (culs-de-sac, if you insist) that see 20 cars per day, if that, need it more, apparently.

The road-reconstruction has now reached my driveway - isn't the city supposed to communicate with us to let us know in advance of doing this? We didn't get any communication except a postcard months and months ago to tell us they would give us details later.

[Busguy2010]

As its getting closer to completion, I can see nothing really is changing with the Rose Blumpkin project. They really missed an opportunity to remove some of the island that bumps out and creates a choke point. That intersection could have really used a lengthening of the left turn lanes, or heck, even a third turn lane. That intersection is bad. But I guess all they are doing is replacing the concrete just as it was before. For how long its been closed, you'd think they'd do some sort of meaningful engineering to help alleviate some of the traffic issues of that intersection, but no. At least its getting replaced, it actually needed it pretty badly.

[Brad]

As its getting closer to completion, I can see nothing really is changing with the Rose Blumpkin project. They really missed an opportunity to remove some of the island that bumps out and creates a choke point. That intersection could have really used a lengthening of the left turn lanes, or heck, even a third turn lane. That intersection is bad. But I guess all they are doing is replacing the concrete just as it was before. For how long its been closed, you'd think they'd do some sort of meaningful engineering to help alleviate some of the traffic issues of that intersection, but no. At least its getting replaced, it actually needed it pretty badly.

Not only does it need better turn lanes now, image it in a few years when all the redevelopment west of Rose Blumpkin gets going.

[Busguy2010]

The Rose Blumpkin section is now open, and bummer, it is no different, just new concrete.

[ita]

Road projects planned this year in Omaha

Bella Caracta
Thousands of drivers each day go through the intersection at 72nd and Dodge. Dodge is also what many drivers have to do on Omaha roads, avoiding pavement craters on their commutes. But the city is working on long-term solutions.

“Filing a pothole with asphalt is a band-aid solution. And one thing guaranteed, they’re going to pop out again,” said Mayor Jean Stothert last Tuesday after her State of the City address. In the mayor’s address, she highlighted more than 80 street preservation projects for this year, funded by a $200 million bond issue approved by voters in 2020. “Our street preservation bond significantly increased since 2020 when that was first initiated,” said city maintenance engineer, Austin Rowser.

Of the 81 projects planned, 54 are major street resurfacing projects, 11 are residential resurfacing projects and the rest are concrete repairs or brick road restoration.

“Usually we look at getting about 15 to 20 years on a residential street resurfacing,” said Rowser. “Major streets typically get us from 8 to 12 years.”

Here's the city website keeping track of all the projects for 2023 and prior: https://keepomahamoving.com/projects/st ... d-projects