Waco lays out $93 million near-term streets program and a plan to raise 'good' streets to 67% in 10 years

WACO — The Waco City Council received an update June 3 on the Better Streets Waco program that quantified pavement condition, recent investments and a multi-year funding plan to improve the system.

Charles Leese, director of infrastructure services, told the council the city maintains about 1,534 lane miles of streets across roughly 100 square miles; pavement-condition scoring shows 38% of lane miles in poor condition, 19% in fair condition and 43% in good condition. "That's a pretty significant amount of poor pavement," Leese said.

Leese summarized investment and cost trends since Better Streets Waco began in 2019. He said the city has invested roughly $50 million to $65 million since 2019 (not including bridges, sidewalks, traffic signals and some grant-match funds) and that the 2015 funding baseline was about $15 million. Construction costs have risen sharply: staff presented TxDOT-based averages showing asphalt and labor cost increases that have pushed preservation, rehabilitation and reconstruction prices higher. On a per-square-yard basis Leese gave these approximate figures from the slide deck: preservation roughly $24 per square yard (up severalfold from earlier years), rehabilitation about $92 per square yard and full reconstruction about $420 per square yard — with a corresponding increase in lane-mile costs (for example, mill-and-overlay rehabilitation rose in staff examples from roughly $275,000 per lane mile in 2019 to about $702,000 in 2025).

Leese emphasized maintenance strategy. Using lifecycle modeling, staff showed that regular preservation treatments — surface seals and similar work timed before pavements fall from "good" into "fair" and then to "poor" — yield lower long-term costs and better ride quality than deferring maintenance and rebuilding once pavements fail. Leese described two illustrative 50-year examples: a preservation-first strategy whose cumulative cost was lower and that kept most years in a "good" condition, versus a deferred-maintenance approach that ultimately required more costly reconstruction and increased time the network spent in poor condition.

Funding and program status

Leese told the council he has roughly $93 million in combined unencumbered cash and bond-authorized funds available to the street program (including recent bond proceeds and cash), of which about $51 million has already been programmed into preservation, rehabilitation and reconstruction packages. That leaves roughly $42 million remaining to distribute among upcoming projects. Active work in the queue included about $7.5 million of preservation, $21 million of rehabilitation and about $13.8 million of reconstruction work; staff said they plan to advertise and bid additional packages through the summer.

To meet an objective shown in staff materials — raising the citywide share of "good" pavement from about 43% today to roughly 67% in 10 years — the administration estimated a need for roughly $375 million of debt issuance over the decade to convert most fair streets to good, plus about $36 million to bring a portion of poor streets up to good condition; preservation funding of about $8.8 million per year (escalating with inflation) was identified as the yearly amount needed to keep good streets good. Staff noted the city's current debt capacity and said using that capacity for fair-to-good conversions would largely consume available tax-supported borrowing capacity over the 10-year horizon.

Examples and neighborhood impact

Leese showed recent projects across council districts, including Elm Avenue (streetscape and utility work), Fifth Street and Bagby, and described active or upcoming projects such as Clay Avenue, Aviation Parkway and Chapel Road widening. He also noted the program's public engagement tools — a public web map at betterstreetswaco.com that allows residents to find project status and timing for specific street segments.

Council members and staff discussed the priority-setting approach. Paul Kane (staff) said the administration's plan would prioritize moving fair streets to good across the city while directing some additional focus to districts with a higher concentration of poor streets; Leese said street-segment lists generated by the pavement-management system would be analyzed for utility, ADA and feasibility impacts before final programming.

What happens next

Staff said they will return with detailed programming for the remaining funds and will include street priorities among options for the council's budget retreat. Leese and council members discussed the prospect of a bond proposition or other strategies at the retreat to increase available debt capacity if the council wants faster progress.

Speakers

- Charles Leese, Director of Infrastructure Services (government) - Bradley Ford, City Manager (government) - Paul Kane, (staff) (government) - Council members who participated in Q&A: Josh Borderud, Andre Barefield, others

Authorities

- Better Streets Waco program (city program) referenced_by ["waco-better-streets-2025-06-03"]

Actions: []

discussion_decision: {"discussion_points":["Citywide pavement condition: 43% good, 19% fair, 38% poor.","Preservation-first strategy is more cost-effective than deferred reconstruction.","Estimated funding gap to reach ~67% good in 10 years is substantial and would consume much of available debt capacity."],"directions":["Staff to return with a detailed allocation plan for the remaining $42 million in unprogrammed funds and to present bond/financing options at the June 6 retreat."],"decisions":[]}

clarifying_details:[{"category":"lane_miles","detail":"City-maintained lane miles","value":1534,"units":"lane miles","approximate":false,"source_speaker":"Charles Leese"},{"category":"pavement_condition","detail":"Share of lane miles by condition","value":"43% good; 19% fair; 38% poor","units":"percent","approximate":false,"source_speaker":"Charles Leese"},{"category":"investment_since_2019","detail":"Total streets investment since Better Streets Waco began in 2019 (excludes bridges/signals/sidewalk grants)","value":"50,000,000-65,000,000","units":"USD","approximate":true,"source_speaker":"Charles Leese"},{"category":"current_programmed_projects","detail":"Active/pending street work by category","value":"Preservation $7,500,000; Rehabilitation $21,000,000; Reconstruction $13,800,000","units":"USD","approximate":false,"source_speaker":"Charles Leese"},{"category":"available_funds","detail":"Combined unencumbered cash and bond-authorized funds for streets program","value":93000000,"units":"USD","approximate":true,"source_speaker":"Charles Leese"},{"category":"funding_needed_fair_to_good","detail":"Estimated debt issuance to move fair streets to good over 10 years","value":375000000,"units":"USD","approximate":true,"source_speaker":"Charles Leese"},{"category":"preservation_annual_target","detail":"Annual preservation funding to keep good streets good (10-year average)","value":8800000,"units":"USD_per_year","approximate":true,"source_speaker":"Charles Leese"}],

proper_names:[{"name":"Better Streets Waco","type":"program"},{"name":"Elm Avenue","type":"location"},{"name":"Fifth Street","type":"location"},{"name":"Bagby Avenue","type":"location"},{"name":"Clay Avenue","type":"location"},{"name":"Aviation Parkway","type":"location"},{"name":"Chapel Road","type":"location"},{"name":"betterstreetswaco.com","type":"other"}],

community_relevance:{"geographies":["City of Waco"],"funding_sources":["general fund","street maintenance fee","CIP bonds","TIF contributions"],"impact_groups":["residents on poor condition streets","commuters","businesses"]},

meeting_context:{"engagement_level":{"speakers_count":6,"duration_minutes":125,"items_count":1},"implementation_risk":"medium","history":[{"date":"2019","note":"Launch of Better Streets Waco program"}]},

searchable_tags:["streets","infrastructure","CIP","pavement management","Better Streets Waco"],

provenance:{"transcript_segments":[{"block_id":"block_4658.73","local_start":0,"local_end":135,"evidence_excerpt":"Yeah. Our next Which 1? Next presentation, we've got Charles Leese, our director of infrastructure services coming up, for work session 3 73, which, is an update on the city Of Waco Street program and including kind of a look back at our successes on projects and funding, as well as the current street work we have ongoing and a look ahead at both our future street plans as well as, you know, kind of our 10 year funding strategy for the program. Charles, look for a new presentation. Welcome.","global_start":4658,"global_end":4693,"tc_start":"01:17:38","tc_end":"01:18:13","text_sha256":"e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855","reason_code":"topicintro"},{"block_id":"block_8432.86","local_start":0,"local_end":56,"evidence_excerpt":"Charles, thank you. I'm gonna turn it back over to city manager Ford. And, where where we at?","global_start":8432,"global_end":8439,"tc_start":"01:27:12","tc_end":"01:27:20","text_sha256":"e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855","reason_code":"topicfinish"}]},

salience:{"overall":0.72,"overall_justification":"Street condition affects daily life for residents and requires long-term capital planning.","impact_scope":"local","impact_scope_justification":"Direct city infrastructure issue.","attention_level":"high","attention_level_justification":"Widespread resident concern and large funding gap.","novelty":0.25,"novelty_justification":"Program ongoing but funding gap and cost escalation are current issues.","timeliness_urgency":0.6,"timeliness_urgency_justification":"Council retreat and upcoming bond decisions could affect timing.","legal_significance":0.2,"legal_significance_justification":"Limited statutory implications beyond procurement and bond rules.","budgetary_significance":0.8,"budgetary_significance_justification":"Large capital needs and bond usage would affect fiscal capacity.","public_safety_risk":0.3,"public_safety_risk_justification":"Poor roads affect response times and vehicle safety but are not an immediate public-safety crisis.","environmental_impact":0.1,"environmental_impact_justification":"Indirect; construction has environmental footprint but not primary concern.","affected_population_estimate":266000,"affected_population_estimate_justification":"Citywide impact; concentrated on neighborhoods with poor streets.","affected_population_confidence":0.3,"affected_population_confidence_justification":"Estimate uses population proxy.","budget_total_usd":375000000,"budget_total_usd_justification":"Estimated bonding to convert fair to good across 10 years (staff estimate)."},

engagement_forecast:{"newsworthiness":{"national":0.01,"regional":0.15,"local":0.9,"justification":"Highly local infrastructure topic; limited regional interest."},"notify_recommendation":{"audience":"neighborhood","reason":"Street projects directly affect neighborhoods; notify residents and neighborhood associations.","audience_regions":["city_neighborhoods"],"justification":"Local project impacts and construction timing."},"notify_thresholds":{"local_min":0.5,"regional_min":0.8,"national_min":0.95},"predicted_interest":{"national":0.01,"regional":0.2,"local":0.85,"justification":"High local interest from residents and businesses."},"predicted_click_through":0.4,"predicted_click_through_justification":"Maps and project lists will draw clicks."},

graph_signals:{"jurisdictions":["US-TX"],"jurisdictions_justification":"City-level capital planning; state procurement rules relevant.","ontology_topics":["infrastructure","streets","capital planning"],"ontology_topics_justification":"Core topics of presentation.","entities":[{"id":"betterstreetswaco","name":"Better Streets Waco","type":"program"}],"entities_justification":"Program is primary subject."}

} ,{