Colorado Springs officials reveal 2024 street paving list Thursday

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- We now know which streets will be the first repaved on this year's city repaving list that was revealed late Thursday morning.

Eastcrest Circle, near the intersection of Pikes Peak Avenue and Murray Boulevard, was the site of an event hosted by city officials announcing the list at 10 a.m.

Crews have already prepared Eastcrest for repaving by milling, or stripping off, the old pavement and moving heavy equipment into the area.

Streets to be paved also have had potholes filled, any utility work completed, and repairs to or construction of sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

Corey Farkas, the city's operations and maintenance manager for public works, said that starting the paving season in the Eastcrest area represents a continued emphasis on neighborhood streets.

"When when we start getting into these neighborhood streets, there's a lot of neighborhoods in here in in the city," he explained. "It's the largest municipal infrastructure in the state of Colorado. And over 85% of our infrastructure within the city is the residential. That creates challenges."

Eastcrest neighbors say that they don't mind inconveniences brought by the paving.

"I'm excited," said Daniel Harrell. "There's tons of potholes, as everybody probably knows. And I've had to change several tires on my car because of blown big holes in it from several potholes around town. So, it's definitely time to do something about it."

Michael Holmes agrees.

"I think it's good that they're getting the potholes fixed up because it really does damage the cars, the suspension and all of that stuff," he said. "It does take a hit. Really, our city needs it, like, bad."

This marks the ninth year of the city's 2C expanded paving program that was passed by voters in 2015 and renewed in 2020; the initial tax generated $50 million annually for five years, and the renewal was at a slightly lower rate.

City officials have already announced their intent to ask voters this fall to extend the tax for ten more years, to catch up on paving needs that fell behind after a previous infrastructure tax ended in the early 1990s.

Farkas said that the second phase of 2C has generated $20 million more annually than the first phase did at a slightly higher tax rate.

"That's because of the growth we've had, and people surprisingly spending more during the beginning of the pandemic," he said. "We were able to add more streets to the list. But the past two years, we've had flat revenues, so we've had to work with a tighter budget."

City Council President Randy Helms said that city residents aren't the only people providing the tax revenue that supports additional paving.

"More than 20 million visitors visit Colorado Springs each and every year," he said. "Think about that. The millions of dollars that 2C will bring in from our visitors here in Colorado Springs, added with our residents, help make this program a success. This is a proven program."

Many residents have been frustrated at the persistence of potholes; that frustration was a driving force behind John Suthers using 2C in the campaign for his first of two terms.

City officials said that potholes recently became more numerous because of unusually wet weather last summer and earlier this year, combined with freeze-thaw cycles on many streets that have long needed repaving.

Officials insist that continued additional paving will eventually lead to a significant reduction in potholes.

To see the interactive map of more than 100 streets to be paved, visit: https://coloradosprings.gov/2c.