11:45pm | More than $14.3 million in Federal Stimulus Funding will pay for about 11 miles of street repairs in Long Beach, it was announced Monday afternoon. Ten local streets will benefit from the funds in the largest repair campaign in the city in more than a decade.

“Without this funding, these infrastructure improvements would at best be delayed, and, at worst, simply not get done in the foreseeable future,” said Mark Christoffels, City Engineer and Deputy Director of Public Works.  “The City very much appreciates the millions of dollars in state and federal resources that our State and Federal delegation fought for and made available for these projects.”

Four of the contracts have been awarded and six will come before the City Council tonight. The list of streets that will be repaired is below.

  • Spring Street from Clark Avenue to the East City Limit
  • Harding Street from DeForest Avenue to Atlantic Avenue
  • California Avenue from Harding Street to Artesia Boulevard
  • Carson Street from Long Beach Boulevard to Atlantic Avenue

Cost for first four streets – $4,917,000  

  • Colorado Street from Los Altos Avenue to Bellflower Boulevard
  • Pacific Avenue from Ocean Boulevard to 7th Street
  • Los Coyotes Diagonal from Outer Traffic Circle to Studebaker
  • Broadway from Livingston Drive to Bayshore Avenue
  • Wardlow Road from Clark Avenue to Woodruff Avenue
  • Atlantic Avenue from San Antonio Drive to 52nd Street

Cost for additional six streets – $9,466,000

Long Beach was in favorable position to receive the funding because plans for street repair were drawn up during preparation for Measure I, the 2008 infrastructure parcel tax designed to improve city infrastructure. Measure I failed in the polls, but the projects it was supposed to fund became “shovel-ready” and therefore attractive for Stimulus funding.

“Hard work pays off, and the City’s due diligence in planning these projects was able to realize a double dividend,” said Joe Magaddino, Chair of the Economics Department at California State University, Long Beach. “On the one hand, City staff did a lot of up-front work to plan these projects without a guaranteed funding source and, on the other hand, the City is clearly able to repair more streets than anticipated due to the low bids on these repairs.”

Additionally, Long Beach used funds from Proposition 1B to repair 113 residential streets in 2008 and 2009.