Post Falls Road Work Gets High Priority Council Votes To Spend $480,000 On Paving, Reconstruction, Overlays

If streets are like shoes for cities, Post Falls is kicking off its bedroom slippers and lacing up its cross trainers.

The former bedroom community - now one of the fastest growing cities of its size in Idaho - is kissing its downtown gravel roads goodbye.

The city council approved a proposal Tuesday from City Engineer Bill Melvin to use $480,000 to pave the gravel roads downtown, reconstruct part of Third Avenue and put overlays on parts of 10th and 12th avenues.

More specifically, the 1997-1998 street plan proposed:

Reconstructing Third Avenue from the city shop to Spokane Street for $235,000.

Paving gravel streets on Catherine Street from 20th Avenue to Poleline Road, on Coeur d’Alene Street from Beckett Street to its west end, on Frederick Street from First Avenue to the railroad tracks past Third Avenue, on Williams Street from First Avenue to the railroad tracks past Third Avenue, on Post Street from First Avenue to the railroad tracks past Third Avenue, on Idaho Street from Third Avenue to the railroad tracks, and on Ford Street from Third Avenue to the alley for $147,000.

Overlaying 10th Avenue from Spokane Street to Idaho Street, 12th Avenue from Spokane Street to Idaho Street and all the north-south roads between 10th and 12th for $75,000.

All those improvements plus $23,000 left over for contingencies adds up to $480,000 - $61,000 more than the city spent last year.

“It’s pretty miserable in the summer living in front of a street that’s unpaved - I have and I hated it,” said City Administrator Jim Hammond.

The city will focus on older streets in town that were built to be low-traffic county roads, he said.

“It’s the older streets that were never put in according to city standards that are languishing now,” he said.

The street plan also beefs up the amount for sealing and maintaining city streets to $55,000, up from $33,500 last year.

“The city is recognizing that we need to spend more on maintaining our streets,” Melvin said. Each dollar spent on rehabilitating a street in the 10th year of its existence will save $4 or $5 by the 15th year of its existence, he said.

The next step, Melvin suggests, is creating a five-year plan for street maintenance and repair - an idea Hammond endorses.

The public works department will evaluate the condition of city roads and come up with a five-year plan next year.

, DataTimes