Kaysville public works director details aging water, storm and street infrastructure, rising costs and grant success

Public Works Director Josh Belknap told the Kaysville City Council on May 15 that the city faces pressing infrastructure needs across streets, stormwater and drinking-water systems and that sharply higher construction costs are reducing how much the city can do each year.

Belknap said the city now counts about 30 miles of public streets (measured as centerline miles) and roughly 50 miles of storm drains, and that “if we were to repave every public street in Kaysville … those 30 miles, would be an approximate cost of about $91,000,000.” He warned corrosion is causing many of the water leaks the department responds to.

The presentation summarized routine and emergency work — pothole repair, hydrant maintenance, valve exercising, pipe inspection and street sweeping — and tied those operations to long-term funding choices. "We've received just over $22.5 million in grants for streets projects" during the roughly nine years Belknap referenced, he said, and the city has additional grant requests pending.

Why it matters: the city’s ability to replace water mains, repave streets or upgrade storm infrastructure is limited by rising prices and constrained revenue. Belknap showed recent project bid comparisons illustrating order-of-magnitude increases: the low bid to install an 8-inch water main averaged about $26.70 per foot in 2019 and about $101 per foot in recent bids — a rise he presented as about 278 percent. He told the council that installing a 3/4-inch lateral rose to more than $5,300 per lateral in recent bids, a figure he said reflected an overall increase of roughly 458 percent from 2019 averages.

Key details from the department’s report: - Water system: about 68 miles of…