Keller advances two‑year street rehab plan, awards annual maintenance contract and outlines backlog

Keller City Council approved a multi-year approach to street maintenance and awarded the city’s 2024–25 annual street maintenance contract as part of consent items Tuesday, while staff urged a longer-term view to address a growing backlog.

Public Works staff said the city shifted to a two‑year street package to make projects large enough to attract more bidders and contractors. Council approved consent items that included a construction contract for the 2024–25 annual street maintenance program with Texas Bit of Irving (consent item F4), part of an overall $3.3 million package for several streets including Chandler, Castle Cove and Treehouse Lane.

Staff presented the city’s pavement‑management data, saying the city maintains roughly 500 lane miles (about 269 centerline miles) and that asphalt and concrete require different maintenance strategies. Staff showed a condition map color coded from “excellent” to “very poor,” explaining that asphalt and concrete follow similar degradation curves but that concrete generally retains condition longer. “If I do work here, that takes it all the way back up to a green. If I do work here, it’ll take it up to probably halfway to green,” the presenter said, describing trade‑offs among light maintenance, moderate repair and full reconstruction.

The presentation included unit examples: staff estimated reconstruction at about $1,000,000 per lane mile for a two‑lane roadway, and noted that costs and inflation have reduced the amount of street they can repair with flat or modestly growing revenue streams. Staff also described a county partnership that can deliver lower-cost asphalt work when the county supplies labor and the city supplies materials and some costs; that program is limited to asphalt surfaces.

Councilmembers pressed staff on bid variance and contractor risk. Earlier in the meeting, council had questioned a large variance among bidders on an annual street contract, asking whether the low bid might represent inexperience or underbidding. Staff said they check references and rely on third‑party engineers who design the work and verify bid documents. “We do our diligence. We do the references,” staff said.

Staff said the city will provide a Thursday budget report with backlog estimates and a comparison of the cost to bring all “poor” and “very poor” streets up to good condition versus annual revenues. Councilmembers raised the option of issuing debt sooner to address the backlog but were warned that issuing bonds typically buys reconstruction (longer‑term fixes) rather than routine annual maintenance. Staff said they will return with more detailed cost-backlog analysis and a proposed prioritization for council review.