Cleveland Heights Plans to Repair All Residential Streets Within 7 Years

We  that will be repaired around Cleveland Heights this summer, and crews will start to work on some of those streets Monday.  

You responded to that story. Some were ecstatic that their roads were getting worked on. Others were disappointed, even angry, that their street was getting the cold shoulder.

So we met with Alex Mannarino, public works director, to find out more about how the city decides which streets will be repaired and when.

The good news? Nearly every residential street in the city will get a face-lift. That process will take about seven years, Mannarino said.

Every two years, the city surveys all 264 residential streets in Cleveland Heights. This list does not include main roads that the county and state handle, such as Monticello, Lee, South Taylor and Mayfield.

"They do evaluations and decide when repairs are done," Mannarino said. "We can only beg."

When the city surveys streets, core samples of a few layers of the road are taken to decide if the foundation is in good shape. If the foundation crumbles, it’s a sign that the road needs to be treated first.   

When the city receives a complaint about potholes and other problems, they’ll also take a look at the road, and patch up holes and cracks until more can be done. 

Mannarino has a chart of the streets in Cleveland Heights with information like the year they were last repaired, the quality ranking of the road, traffic level and other information. There's also a map of where potholes are around the city. 

"The street department goes out and tries to accommodate the complaints," he said. 

The city takes care of residential road repairs through some money from the Community Development Block Grant and the about $1.1 million the street department receives from the city each year, Mannarino said. Some repairs are covered in-house, but .

Federal, state and county funding covers repairs on the main roads. in the near future. 

"Everybody can’t wait for that road to start," said Mannarino, who estimated that the road would be complete sometime in 2013. 

Cleveland Heights went out to bid with its paving program with other nearby cities like Shaker Heights and University Heights to get better deals for the first time this year, he said. 

Some of the residential streets will take about a day to repair, and others will take a few weeks. 

Surface treating a road is easier, Mannarino said, and those streets on the list getting surface treatments will take about a day. Repaving a road, however, is more labor-intensive. Crews have to grind about 1.5 to 2.5 inches of street, dig out the weak areas, put in a base repair to help strengthen the foundation and then repave that. That takes about two weeks. 

People will receive fliers explaining what the city is doing to their street and the timeline, he said. The city also posted the streets being repaired on its website.