Oakdale outlines 2025 capital projects, reports 1,700 tons removed in wastewater pond dredging

Jeff Gravel, Oakdale’s public services director, on Tuesday presented the city’s planned capital improvement projects for 2025 and updated the council on a recently completed wastewater aeration-pond dredging effort that removed about 1,700 tons of sludge.

Gravel told the council that the capital improvement program “is a list of prior prioritized projects” drawn from the city’s utility and street master plans, and described a slate of street, utility and park projects that staff expect to start in the 2024–25 and 2025–26 fiscal years. He said some projects are funded in part by grants and that staff will return to council with contract awards in the spring. “This project was approved by council on November 18 and construction is to begin sometime in, I believe mid February of this year,” Gravel said of the Southwest Downtown ATP/safe-routes-to-school pavement rehabilitation project.

Why it matters: The work targets several neighborhoods and public facilities that the city and residents have identified as in poor condition or needing upgrades. Several projects rely on external grant funding; one project is expected to be funded about 95% by a roughly $900,000 grant for pavement work on Albers Avenue. Construction and utility upgrades will require traffic control and resident notification, city staff said.

Major projects and timing

- Southwest Downtown ATP / Safe Routes to School (pavement rehab and wet utilities). Gravel described this as among the city’s most ambitious street projects;…