Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Capital Improvement Plan topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council reviews draft CIP: staff propose higher pavement-management spending, list major citywide projects
Summary
City staff proposed raising annual pavement-management spending to $14 million and outlined major 2026–2028 projects including Southeast Quincy Street reconstruction and Menninger/North Topeka Boulevard intersection improvements.
Josh MacInarney, the city’s Budget and Finance Division director, and Steve Gaughan, director of public works, led a review of the draft 2026–2035 Capital Improvement Plan and the proposed 2026–2028 capital budget during the April 8 meeting.
MacInarney said the citywide half-cent sales tax (a 10-year tax set to sunset Oct. 1, 2029) currently has a fund balance of about $17.5 million and generated roughly $19.9 million in 2024. As part of the draft CIP staff proposed increasing the annual pavement management program from roughly $11 million to $14 million to spend down the accumulated fund balance before the tax’s scheduled expiration and to accelerate street repairs.
Major citywide projects identified in the presentation include: reconstruction or rehabilitation of Southeast Quincy Street (Eighth to Tenth), improvements at Northwest Menninger Road and North Topeka Boulevard to correct an offset intersection (a joint project with Shawnee County), additional phases on Southwest Topeka Boulevard, and design of a shared-use path on 40th Street between Gage and Cambridge. The presentation included timelines that place several projects in the 2026–2028 window with design and utility-relocation phases preceding construction.
Council members raised questions about program priorities. Councilwoman Huerra and others expressed concern about preserving sufficient funding for full-depth reconstruction versus shifting more money to contract preventive maintenance (microsurfacing and UBAS). Staff said pavement management choices, alley repair and curb-and-gutter projects would still come before the Public Works Infrastructure Committee and that staff would provide tentative lists of project candidates and condition data to inform prioritization.
Several councilmembers requested more historical comparison data (spending by program for prior years) and asked staff to reflect updated construction-cost inflation assumptions in multi-year estimates. Staff agreed to supply comparative figures and to present debt-service and bonding-limit information in upcoming budget work sessions. The presentation also noted that an engineering-cost-inflation factor has increased project estimates since 2020 and that the city will review the debt policy resolution as part of CIP budget discussions.
Why it matters: The CIP sets the city’s near- and medium-term project priorities and funding commitments; decisions about how much to allocate between preventive maintenance and full reconstruction affect service life, repair frequency and long-term costs.
