Council reviews proposed scoring system to prioritize street projects and align federal funds

City staff presented a proposed framework on how the city should rank transportation projects to align limited funding with council priorities and federal and state grant programs.

“Our goal this evening is to move toward a more transparent, consistent, objective prioritization process,” City Engineer Stan Petroff told the council. He said the proposal would score projects on several priorities using a three‑level scale so staff and council can rank competing projects for funding, including roughly $5 million in anticipated MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) funds that Springfield expects to receive.

The plan responds to a staff analysis showing Springfield’s pavement condition index (PCI) is about 69 out of 100 and that, if spending continues at current levels, the street system will gradually deteriorate. “We need to spend, like, another million and a half per year approximately to be able to just kinda stay where we’re at,” Petroff said. He said about 75% of Springfield’s network is local streets, and roughly 11% of the network is in the poor or very poor category and would require full reconstruction.

Senior transportation planner Drew Larson explained how funding rules shape choices. He said large federal grants typically can be used only on arterials and collectors, while local gas tax supports low‑cost maintenance and bond funds have been used for pavement preservation on arterials and collectors. Larson said the city will need new local revenue—such as a transportation utility fee or a future bond—to address the local street network.

Councilors pressed staff on priorities and data. Councilor Rodley and Councilor Stout urged staff to add an explicit priority for high‑traffic corridors near schools and shopping centers that experience heavy wear and pedestrian activity. Councilor Stout argued pedestrian safety should be treated as a transportation mode: “If there’s a crash involving a pedestrian, we should treat that pedestrian crash as a central part of what we’re doing,” he said.

Several councilors also asked about crash data and timeliness. Staff and planners said official crash data come from ODOT and are delayed—currently by about two years—and encouraged councilors to help lobby for faster data sharing. “ODOT is on about a two year delay,” Larson said; the council asked staff to explore whether local police or health system data could supplement state crash reports for grant applications.

Petroff described the scoring concept as simple and adaptable: projects would be scored low/medium/high (1/2/3) across priority categories, with optional weighting factors if the council wants to emphasize a particular objective. He said the scoring approach aims to increase transparency, align projects with state and federal priorities to improve grant competitiveness, and produce an objective list for each funding source.

Staff said next steps will include refining the proposed criteria, testing the scoring system on candidate projects and returning with a draft process and example ranked lists. Councilors also asked staff to prepare options for addressing local streets—both policy choices and possible funding mechanisms—so the council can weigh tradeoffs between preserving arterials and addressing neighborhood roads.

Why this matters: Springfield has limited discretionary funding and upcoming federal and state opportunities. A transparent, consistent prioritization process is intended to make grant applications more competitive and to make it clearer to residents how projects were chosen.