BUFFALO, N.Y. — The City of Buffalo is busy tackling its list of streets that are scheduled to get repaved this year.
There are more than 120 streets on the City of Buffalo's repaving list this year, and how they get picked isn't random.
It's all based on a combination of a rating system ranked by the Department of Public Works, 311 calls, and input from Common Council members.
"Unfortunately, not all the streets deteriorate at the same rate across the city, so some are in higher need than others, so we take that rating system, blend it with Common Council, blend it with kind of some of the input from 311, where we know there's traffic or more activity, and then I don't know if there's a magic formula, but it comes out to sort of a general list," said Nathan Marton, the City of Buffalo Department of Public Works commissioner.
We met up with the DPW Commissioner and the City Engineer at Ritt Avenue and Clayton Street on Wednesday afternoon, and according to the city's 2021 street rating map, both streets were ranked a five out of ten.
Flash forward to today, and they're both green on a different map: the interactive map showing current construction. The streets are repaved, the curbs are in, and the lines just need to be repainted.
If your street is on the list this year, you can expect to get a flier about a week or two before construction starts.
"The contractor often stays in one neighborhood just for efficiency purposes, then we'll move to the next neighborhood, the next neighborhood. We usually try to batch a few streets together in a neighborhood for efficiency purposes," City of Buffalo engineer Nolan Skipper said.
The city is spending about $12.5 million this year on street resurfacing and paving.
"When we do get to the end of a list, there's a different list for next year, and depending on where traffic is, or how streets have been impacted over the winter, and potholes, and things like that, some might pop up on a list a little bit sooner than we might hope, but we run the whole city," Marton said.
"So there's a rating system if you look on our website, every street in the city is rated. We update that continually, so we'll come back and when we get done with this season, we'll be reevaluating and getting ready for next season."
And if you don't see a street listed, but it's in bad shape, it might be part of a bigger project with other funding sources.
"So Main Street or Bailey Avenue or Jefferson, some of those larger streets come more on a project side, so again, if you click on our website, you'll see some of the project lists of our locations, so those are supplemental or in addition to what we're doing with our regular paving list," Marton said.
Weather can of course impact construction. The DPW says sometimes they can pave into December, but other years they end the work in October.