By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Ideally, most people would like their nearby street or road they commute on daily to be newly resurfaced. Financially, that is not possible.
The City of Great Bend uses a PASER scale to rate all the streets in town, helping staff determine which street projects should be a priority. The pavement surface evaluation and rating system ranks all the streets from 1-10. A “1” rating signifies the worst condition and a “10” rating represents a new street in the best condition.
Great Bend Public Works Director Jason Cauley said preventative
steps like chip and seal projects can help prolong the streets’ lives before
having to completely resurface the road.
"If the street is a '1' it's not going to deteriorate any worse than what it already is," said Cauley. "We have very few of those, but sometimes those get put on the backburner to allow for streets in relatively good condition to be saved before they deteriorate beyond a condition that will take minimal costs to repair."
Cauley mentioned the majority of Great Bend’s streets reside within the 4-to-7
rating. A quarter-cent sales tax in Great Bend designates tax funds to finance
construction, reconstruction and maintenance of public streets. Last year, a
portion of McKinley Street was resurfaced and several residential streets
received the chip and seal treatment.
"We do the best we can with what we have," said Cauley. "Things like the McKinley project is ideal where we went clear down to the base and restructured up there. When you start getting into that full-depth reconstruction, that's a significant chunk of money."
The 2024 fiscal year balance from the quarter-cent sales tax is expected to
generate $1.3 million. This year’s focuses will be sections of the 281 Bypass, Harrison
Street and 24th Street.