SEARCY, Ark. — On Tuesday, the Searcy City Council voted to allocate $750,000 to fix their roads and sidewalks.
According to City Engineer Mark Lane, this is in addition to the three-quarters of a million they spent last year on sidewalk extensions.
"We're going to have, I believe it's 25 different streets,” Lane said. “They will be milled and overlaid if it has curb and gutter, or just overlaid if there is no curb and gutter."
But how did the city decide which streets needed fixing the most?
Lane said about a year ago, the city council approved purchasing a software program from Little Rock-based Roadway Management Technologies that attaches to cars and measures pavement vibrations.
“Our hardware passively collects data on their road conditions, which is uploaded to the cloud at the end of each day through a Wi-Fi connection,” a Roadway Management Technologies spokesperson said. “RMT processes that data using AI and various algorithms which produces an objective analysis of their road network’s pavement condition index (PCI) on a color-coded map.”
In other words, it ranks the streets from worst to best regarding pavement conditions.
“Instead of going out and driving every street and looking at it through my eyes, I'm getting an objective view of it,” Lane said.
And that objective view has led them to portions of 25 streets spread across the city to address.
Lane said these aren't the last improvements the city plans to make, but they are a step in the right direction, and he knows Searcy appreciates it.
"They notice the better, improved pavement quality that we have,” Lane said. “We have a lot of other streets out there that still need repairs. We know that, but we are putting what we can afford to put towards those repairs at this time."
Lane mentioned Fuller Lane as a road that could see repairs in the future. He said they hope to take bids on that project within the next two months.
Lane also pointed to a project to widen parts of Sawmill Road, south of Beebe-Capps, from two lanes to three and address underground drainage in that area.
Here are the 25 roads set to be redone thanks to Tuesday's vote:
- Cone Street from Pleasure to Center
- East Academy Avenue from Horton to Main
- North Cross Street from Market to Moore
- Joyce Street from Maple to Forrest
- South Maple Street from Beebe Capps to Woodruff
- West Academy Avenue from Elm to Apple
- Kevin Circle (all)
- South Charles Street south of Woodruff
- North James Street from Randall to Moore
- Autumn Cove (all)
- Orchid Drive (all)
- Jason Street (all)
- South Pecan Street from Beebe Capps to Woodruff
- Zadie Court (all)
- Ledgestone Cove (all)
- Saddle Ridge Cove (all)
- Saddle Ridge Drive (all)
- West Mcrae Avenue from Main to Elm
- Chapel Lane north of Beebe Capps
- Lori Circle (all)
- North Birch Street from McRae to Academy
- Sky Glen (all)
- West Academy Avenue from Hickory to Maple
- East River Avenue from Cross to West End
- Mohawk Drive (all)