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The City of Port Arthur gave an update this week to the ongoing six-year street repair project, which has only two years left.

The project, which began in 2019, allocated $62,624,295 with $41,021,229 remaining, according to a presentation by city engineer Martin Flood.

For April, 18.69 miles of remaining projects have been completed in District 1, 6.08 miles in District 2, 7.11 miles in District 3 and 12.21 miles in District 4.

But, as the city changed primary engineers after beginning the project, updating the database of streets that have been repaired over the last four years has been a “daunting task,” the engineer said.

“We’re still working on this. The last regime seems to not have kept up with a lot of information that we really needed,” Flood said.

The department is working “very diligently” to organize the list of streets, costs and other affiliated information, he added.

“When we went through the streets…some of the streets were on the list but they were already done,” Councilman Thomas Kinlaw said in reference to a recent effort made by councilmembers and city staff to collectively examine streets in each district. “So I have a concern about that. I want to know, one, the record keeping of that and how we can accurately account for streets that were already repaired.”

Flood said he’s confident he and engineer John Cannatella will get all streets and costs identified for better records.

“I understand exactly what you’re asking for, and we’re trying to get there now,” Flood said.

Mayor Pro Tem Donald Frank had questions about the ways streets were identified.

“If the street program is percentages…shouldn’t it be driven by need?” he asked. “From the particular standpoint that there are portions of town, perhaps, that need more streets over other parts of town.”

Kinlaw agreed with him, saying that’s how the percentages were made.

“District 4 had a higher percentage of need, followed by District 1, followed by District 2 and District 3 is last,” he said. “So it had to go by percentages to (delegate) the funding in those particular districts.”

City Manager Ron Burton said in 2020, $4.6 million was spent in District 4, $1.3 million in District 3, $1.6 million in District 2 and $2.3 million in District 1.

To see the April 2022 update on completed and upcoming street repairs, click here.

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