Test Your Knowledge
Take our quiz to test your knowledge about 2C and then listen to our podcast to see if you beat Jen and Ted's score!
Listen to the Podcast
Related Links
- Report a Pothole online (You can also call 385-ROAD)
- Get the GoCOSprings app
- We're Gonna Pave 1,000 Miles, and We Wanna Pave Even More (August 2019 2C update)
- 2C webpage (paving list, maps, spending updates, and more)
- Track 2C revenue and 2C spending online with OpenBudget
- Public Works Operations and Maintenance (streets)
- Understanding the Life Cycle of a Road
- Preventative Maintenance and Other Roadway Maintenance
- Olympic City USA
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Episode Transcript
Ted: (00:00)
Behind the Springs! Pass something fun. This is supposed to be a fun podcast and inside look at your local government, which obviously you guys are having a lot of fun with us. I can tell
Intro: (00:13)
Colorado Springs, nearly 500,000 people, Olympic City, USA, garden of the Gods, Pike's peak. It's a growing city. Our local government has a lot of employees. What exactly do they do? How does it impact my life? This is where you find out behind the springs in, inside. Look at your local government.
Jen: (00:37)
Four years ago, more than half our roads were in poor condition,.
Ted: (00:41)
but that's been changing with the help of a voter approved tax known as 2C,.
Jen: (00:45)
have you been frustrated by potholes or wish that your neighborhood street could be repaved.
Ted: (00:51)
Today we have a great progress report to share and some information about what's next from our guests, Corey Farkas, who heads up our public works operations and maintenance division.
Ted: (01:02)
That makes me uh, run out of breath a little bit. So we'll just say streets. Cory deals with streets. But Cory, thank you so much for, for joining us. Uh, we will say ahead in this episode, we're going to take a little trivia quiz with you, a where we have some, some, uh, awesome buzzers here and you'll be showing us how much we don't know about streets in the city. But to start off, we actually want to dive into a little bit of your background and I, I don't know you too much personally, but what I've heard is that you have Olympic city running through your veins in more ways than just fixing the streets. So give us a little bit about your athletic background.
Corey: (01:40)
So I started wrestling at the age of five, uh, retired at the age of 30. So I had a 25 year wrestling career.
Corey: (01:48)
Um, at this point still, uh, thankfully it's a, it was the majority of my lifetime. Um, so I spent 10 years, um, of of that 25 at the Olympic Training Center training, uh, with the our world and Olympic teams, um, in Greco-Roman wrestling. So it was a fantastic experience. That's what brought me to Colorado Springs. I fell in love with the city and been here ever since. And let's see, I came to Colorado Springs in 1994.
Ted: (02:14)
and love the city because of, because of the Olympics. And, uh, and then what got you into streets changes from wrestling?
Corey: (02:25)
Yeah, that's a great question. So two things that I've done for my entire life are, um, construction and maintenance and wrestling. My father owned his own construction company in southern California, uh, from the time I was born. So, um, I started wrestling at an early age. I started running heavy equipment at an early age.
Corey: (02:42)
Um, when I, uh, when I did get here and started training at the Olympic training center, I was also in the air force in the world class athlete program. Uh, spent 10 years in the, in the military. And when I wasn't wrestling in the military, I was a civil engineer in the civil engineer squadron. Um, again, I was plowing roads, uh, pouring concrete lane, asphalt, running heavy equipment. So, um, these have been two things that I've done my entire life. Now.
Jen: (03:07)
You definitely have a background on what it takes. Yes.
Corey: (03:11)
Yes.
Ted: (03:11)
Was it also a strange for you now that you're the, uh, the streets division manager, um, you're not out there running that heavy equipment anymore?
Corey: (03:21)
So, no. Um, I actually went back to school, um, after my wrestling career was over. Um, you know, had a family, started my wife and I started a family here in Colorado Springs.
Corey: (03:32)
My kids are native and uh, I went back to school, got my degree and uh, that's how I landed at the city.
Jen: (03:38)
How many folks do you have in your division?
Corey: (03:41)
Um, if you count everybody, even our seasonals, uh, we have close to 200.
Jen: (03:45)
Okay. So a lot of folks out there working a lot of folks out there this time of year.
Corey: (03:49)
Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of folks and that's not including, uh, uh, you know, we were not just streets anymore. We do consider ourselves public works operations and maintenance. Uh, because we do the streets, the curb gutter, the sidewalk, we've got all of the drainage maintenance, uh, signs and markings. Um, we've got a right of way management. We've got asset management and I've got the contracted programs group, which runs 2C and PPRTA, all of our big programs. And that's where we, *buzzer sound*.
Ted: (04:17)
What's. PPRTA?
Ted: (04:18)
That's the acronym alarm. Just saying. Okay. [inaudible] say we know PPRTA working for the city and obviously you work closely with them.
Corey: (04:28)
It's the pikes peak rural transportation authority. So, um, it's a funding source that we have for our contractor programs, uh, and some of our in house programs, uh, to perform maintenance on our, on a right of way. Um, and that contractor programs group, uh, while it might be a smaller group in number of people, um, under my division, uh, they work with a large amount of the dollars. Um, so a lot of, a lot of our work is contracted out, so we have 200 people in the division, but we interact with, uh, many, many more in our contracts side because we do have contracted partners out there.
Jen: (05:01)
And speaking of terms that people might not know, I realized that most people understand what two c, *buzzer sound*.
Ted: (05:09)
two c sorry, there was another acronym I just had.
Ted: (05:10)
I had to do it .
Jen: (05:11)
He's a little wild with the sound effects, but tell us what 2C is to remind folks, especially those maybe who've just moved to the area.
Corey: (05:18)
Yeah. So to see is a, um, was a a 2015 ballot initiative, uh, that the citizens of color springs voted in in November of 2015. Um, it's a dedicated funding source to, uh, repave our roadways and take care of the infrastructure and our right of way. So, um, and we'll get to that a little later, but that does include concrete.
Ted: (05:40)
Okay. Yeah.
Ted: (05:40)
We don't want to spoil any of the questions, right.
Jen: (05:42)
We're going to take a quiz. Ted and I.
Ted: (05:44)
Yes.
Jen: (05:45)
And we're going to show more or less, we probably both know not a whole lot yet.
Ted: (05:50)
And on the communication side, uh, everybody, uh, under the mayor, like, like Jen kind of has their own specialties that, that they help with in departments.
Ted: (05:59)
Um, street's isn't really in your purview. That's more of Vanessa's in here.
Jen: (06:04)
I think that'll be evident as we take this.
Ted: (06:06)
So that's what I'm trying to explain is, is don't think we're too stupid when we get things wrong. Uh, we're, we're just a communications, uh, specialists in, in other, other ways. Um, but talk a little bit, hopefully we're not spoiling too much, uh, of what the quiz is going to be people, I'm sure during this paving season. Actually to part of question, what is paving season? What's the dates of paving season traditionally and then when they're seeing these 2C dollars at work or PPRTA what's kind of the, the process of going through? I think people might see you guys working on the curbs and gutters and be kind of confused. Well, why aren't you ripping up the streets? Got a bunch of potholes.
Corey: (06:45)
Sure, sure. And that's a great question. So traditionally on the front range paving season is from April, October. Uh, typically on either side of that, the April in the October side of that range, um, can get a little bit tricky because of Mother Nature. We still get some cold weather. We can still get some snow in April. Um, and then, uh, mother nature can come in a little bit early in the fall and we can have the same issues on, in October. So we have to be vigilant on what we do. We, we consider ourselves in the division, um, amateur meteorologists, uh, because we do watch the weather so much, not just through our paving season, but also for snow. My division also does all the snow removal. Um, so we're, we're always watching the weather and, uh, and seeing what it's doing, communicating with national weather service, that kind of thing.
Corey: (07:30)
So, um, so April to October, generally speaking, um, is going to be that, uh, that paving season. But, uh, concrete is something that we can do year round. Now our winter concrete, uh, takes a little longer because we've got a, uh, winter concrete specification that calls for blankets for so many days. You have to keep blankets on for seven days, et Cetera, et cetera. Um, so it slows down the process a little bit, but we can do the concrete year-round. Um, and we do that to try to get ahead of, uh, of the paving. The last thing we want to do is, is hold up paving in the, in those few months that we have to pave. Uh, because concrete is not complete yet.
Ted: (08:03)
Where are you from originally?
Corey: (08:04)
I'm originally from San Diego, San Diego.
Ted: (08:06)
So San Diego has the same weather all year round.
Corey: (08:09)
Absolutely, boring.
Ted: (08:11)
Now a lot of people obviously, I mean you, you guys don't hear much about potholes.
Ted: (08:14)
I don't think at all. Nobody complains about that. Right to the city. I'm obviously saying that with a little bit of sarcasm, but is the biggest difference between maybe San Diego and here is you can't predict the weather and the weather probably just, uh, just wreaks havoc on our roads.
Corey: (08:31)
Yeah, that is a, that is true. But, but that's true for a lot of folks. A lot of areas actually. Um, you know, we get a lot of folks that come in from the northeast and, well, it might not be San Diego weather. Um, it is still very predictable weather. Um, you know, you get up into the upper northeast and winter rolls in and it doesn't roll out, um, until springtime comes. Um, here on the front, we're very, very unique in the entire United States in that we have an extreme freeze thaw cycle here. So we will have in the middle of January, uh, knights that can get down into single digits even below zero, and the next day will be sunny and 50 degrees.
Corey: (09:11)
And so, um, as that, uh, snow that fell a couple of days ago starts to freeze overnight and there's extreme cold temperatures during the day at melts. It starts to run across the roadways. It runs into all of the cracks and crevices in our asphalt. Um, and then that night when it refreezes again, it expands, starts to expand those cracks. And that's how we start to get those potholes. The next day when it loosens up, uh, due to the warmer weather cars start to run over it, and that subgrade is already compromised and wet all of a sudden a pothole forms. Right.
Ted: (09:44)
And now as, as you were saying, we'll dive more into that.
Jen: (09:48)
Kind of learn more. I know we will .
Ted: (09:50)
Who is gonna win the, uh, the quiz.
Jen: (09:52)
I am.
Ted: (09:53)
All right, well we're going to break, we'll be right back.
Break: (09:57)
You're loving this podcast, right? Of course you are. And what are you waiting for or follow us on social media at city of Cos and check out our website, Colorado springs.gov.
Jen: (10:11)
Okay. Now it's quiz time. We've had a few seconds to regroup and we're here with Cory Farkas who heads up our public works operations and maintenance division and he is the one asking the questions for once. Ted, we have to provide answers. This might be scary for us.
Ted: (10:26)
I'm going to be able to do this. Yeah.
Jen: (10:29)
Our staff came up with some of these questions along with Corey and they have provided us with buzzers. Yes. So that we can ring in my buzzer. Sounds like. *bell sound*
Ted: (10:39)
Okay. So, um, normal game show sound. Mine is *honking*
Ted: (10:44)
a horn, which kind of goes into what we're talking about today. So a, I might have a slight advantage [inaudible] to this, but, uh, Corey, we're going to pass it over to you. You're going to be our game show host for the day.
Corey: (10:56)
Sweet.
Jen: (10:57)
Um, so, uh, so start cracking away at some of those questions. All right.
Corey: (11:00)
I will add that a lot of game shows the horn sound is for incorrect answers as well.
Jen: (11:05)
Thank you Cory. Thank you.
Ted: (11:07)
Darn it.
Ted: (11:07)
But I also have *sad trumpet sound* which I think might come in handy in the jazz answers.
Jen: (11:13)
when we both answer it.
Ted: (11:15)
And that's true too.
Ted: (11:17)
All right, go for it Corey.
Corey: (11:19)
Okay. So, uh, we'll go through these. The first one, we're going to start off easy for Ya. And this is a true or false. Okay. Okay. Does to see money fill potholes.
Jen: (11:31)
*bell sound*. True.
Ted: (11:34)
Oh, you rang into fast.
Corey: (11:36)
Yes. So the, the answer is false and we'll, when, we'll talk about this in just a second, but, uh, I wanted to throw in a bonus question, uh, that goes along with, uh, with number one, even though filling potholes isn't, uh, , before I go into this question, um, feel free just to give me a range, a, a number range in, in potholes even though filling potholes isn't funded by to see Jen, how many potholes have our hardworking crews filled so far this year? *horn sound*
Corey: (12:13)
Ted?
Ted: (12:13)
25,000.
Corey: (12:15)
Wrong, "bell sound". Jen.
Jen: (12:17)
80,000.
Corey: (12:18)
Wrong a close though. So as of July 31st, uh, we have, our crews have filled 63,440 potholes. So what are we are on track to meet or exceed what we did last year at 84,000 potholes.
Jen: (12:36)
But I did have the number, right? Yeah, you were, you knew it was eight. Yeah.
Corey: (12:41)
So that was for the last year, uh, the whole year last year. And so, you know, and this is, this is, um, um, a question that we get a lot of, you know, with, uh, with folks calling in or, or emailing us on, you know, with, with the two C dollars wearing our, uh, potholes being filled, um, 2C is actually designed to pave the roads. So, uh, not just fill the potholes on the roads and, and so we do have our, and we talked about it before, PPRTA, uh, dollars or other funding source and that is typically because of two C.
Corey: (13:15)
Um, we've been able to take those PPRTA dollars and dedicate them to our preventative maintenance. Um, so that would be potholes. So our Pothole, uh, our pothole crews have benefited from 2C by seeing additional dollars from PPRTA. Um, our other preventative maintenance measures like crack seal, like chip seal, um, have also benefited, benefited because of 2C, uh, we're no longer using the PPRTA monies to, uh, to pave and do pre overly concrete. Therefore, those dollars can now go into the preventative maintenance. Uh, for example, our crack seal program is up 124% over pre two c, uh, uh, days. Our chip seal is up 22%, uh, over chips, uh, over pre two C. So, so that preventative maintenance that we're doing out there with this PPR ta dollars is going farther and doing more because of two C. So it's a, it's a, uh, secondary benefit of, uh, of two c.
Corey: (14:14)
Um, and because of that, um, I've got some information here from, uh, from risk management. Um, when you look at our submitted damage claims, and this is one of those things that we, um, kind of track so that we can see the success of our programs. Um, in 2015 we had 548 damage claims due to potholes. 548 and 2015, um, 2016 is when two c started. That number went from 548 down to 315. And in 2017 it went from 315 down to 72. Wow. Last year in 2018 we had 36 risk, uh, claims for potholes.
Ted: (14:52)
Wow,.
Jen: (14:52)
that's great. And that it's safer.
Corey: (14:55)
So it's our, our roadways are becoming safer in, in two C was designed to target our arterial and collector roadways. Um, so those are all the roads that people are using to go to work, to go to school, uh, to go to this grocery store.
Corey: (15:07)
So the majority of our population is, is, um, is running their vehicles on these, these roadways. And that's what we targeted with two C. So that's where I think we're getting those dramatic drops in, in damage claims.
Ted: (15:19)
And quickly remind people, um, you kinda touched on it a little bit by calling, emailing. Also there's the app, but I basically just answered the question I'm about to ask you, but just push how people can contact you guys when they do see these potholes out there. Cause your eyes are not everywhere.
Corey: (15:35)
Absolutely. So the best way, three, eight, five road is a, is the number you can call. And um, we do have two dispatchers that are, that are here everyday taking calls. Um, we do get a lot of calls in. So if you do get the message, uh, the voicemail, leave a message, a detailed message on, um, where you saw it, uh, the direction you were traveling on the particular roadway, the size of the Pothole, as much information as you can give.
Corey: (15:59)
They will as soon as they get off the phone, get that information and they will put in a work order to get that pothole filled. Um, we also have the website. You can go to the website and fill out a form on the website or you can use the app, uh, the Go Co Springs app. And uh, simply take a picture of that pothole. It will send us the coordinates, um, automatically from the app and it gets on the list and we get them filled. Uh, we've been, we've been doing pretty well on, on getting out there and getting these things filled. A lot of times when folks call in and say, ah, you haven't filled this pothole, it's been here for three weeks, we'll call those folks back and say, Hey, we don't have a record of it ever being called in. Did you ever call this in?
Corey: (16:35)
They said, well, no, and so you know, our messages. Yeah, we have, we have over 200 square miles of roadway. We'll talk about, I didn't want to go into the laneway.
Ted: (16:46)
don't spoil a question,.
Corey: (16:47)
spoiler question later, but we have over 200 square miles in the city where the largest city in Colorado compared to Denver, um, Denver Metro is 155 square miles. Um, so in area we are the largest city in the state. And um, there's a lot of, there's a lot of mileage out there.
Ted: (17:05)
Well, you're doing your best to cover it. And you know, we've heard from constituents as well as well, when they do put in a complaint, it seems like that it's done in fixed. So, uh, so keep making sure that you're going down correct avenues. And then what's our next question? I can be at Gen on.
Corey: (17:21)
Okay. You know, uh, you know, and I might've, I might've given this one up just a little bit.
Corey: (17:25)
Um, so what is to see money spent on, hold on? Is it a paving roads, B fixing, crumbling curb and gutter, c upgrading pedestrian ramps to current Ada standards or d all of the above. *horn and bell sounds*
Ted: (17:46)
Sounds like the horn guide first d all the, and a test taking question. A lot of times it is all the above going back to going back to schooling, but yeah, explain that. We were hitting on it a little bit earlier in the episode. Um, explain what the full process of, of redoing one of our roadways is.
Corey: (18:03)
Absolutely. So first of all, ted, Ted got his question right, Jen, um, out there, uh,.
Ted: (18:11)
I think that's one to zero.
Corey: (18:12)
Yeah, it is.
Jen: (18:12)
Not that you're keeping score.
Corey: (18:14)
never, never, never, never. Um, so yeah, so 2C money and what it's actually, uh, being spent on, in, in, uh, it is a paving program.
Corey: (18:22)
Okay. And, uh, uh, our goal is to get out there and pave as many roadways as we can. Um, however, um, when we get out there and pay roadways, we have some other responsibilities that we need to take care of as well. Because when you take a look at a particular roadway, you look at the sidewalk, the curb, the gutter, um, the roadway in and of itself, that is all one system. And we can't just upgrade a piece of that system. We have to upgrade the entire system. We have to look at this holistically. Um, so when we get out there, we do pave the roads. We do fix crumbling, curb and gutter. And the reason for that is to protect the asset. So the last thing we want to do is pave a roadway, have cracked curb and gutter where the water is supposed to be running and a lot of water does run.
Corey: (19:08)
Um, and in those cracks, again, we talk about water infiltration and water is our worst enemy as far as our, our roadways are concerned. Um, so we can get water infiltration through the cracked curb and gutter that will compromise that subgrade underneath that brand new roadway and cause it to fail prematurely. So the brand new roadway that we'd just spent all that to see dollars on a would fail prematurely if we didn't take care of the curb and gutter as well. And then upgrading pedestrian ramps. This is a big one and it's kind of twofold. Number one, we want to upgrade our pedestrian ramps. We want to make our city more accessible for all of our citizens, uh, that are out there. And we've been working hard to do that. Um, number two, uh, it's a federal requirement. Okay. So any time that you mill and pave a roadway, it's considered, uh, under the federal government, it's considered a roadway alteration, not maintenance.
Corey: (19:56)
It's considered an alteration. And anytime you alter a roadway that triggers all of the pedestrian ramps on that particular roadway need to be updated to current standards.
Jen: (20:06)
as they should.
Corey: (20:07)
As they should. Absolutely.
Ted: (20:08)
So, yeah. Well, what's, uh, what's the next question that I can be?
Corey: (20:12)
All right, here we go. Let's go. Let's go to the next, next question. Again, it's uh, this is going to be a multiple choice. Um, so number three, since two c is funded by sales tax, how much of every dollar that citizen's spend goes to, 2C, is it a 50 cents B, 5 cents or c less than a penny? *bell sound* Jen.
Jen: (20:38)
C ,.
Corey: (20:39)
C! She Got one. Right? You got it. C for two C yes. C for 2C. No, it's, so it's a, it's a 0.62. Right. Um, so a 0.62 of every penny, um, can, uh, goes to this, uh, goes to to see that being said over a five year period, because we have a five year sunset, uh, this adds up to approximately $50 million per year, uh, for, uh, for five years.
Corey: (21:09)
So 2C is a quarter of a billion dollar program.
Jen: (21:12)
Right? So it might not seem a lot to us, but it definitely makes it definitely makes a difference.
Ted: (21:19)
Well, and hopefully people are seeing it on the roads that they're driving every day, that it's making a big difference. And we can jump into a little bit later, I think, uh, uh, talking about what the future of have 2C.
Corey: (21:31)
Yeah, absolutely. Love to. Let's get to number four again. We're going to go with the multiple choice. What is the definition of a lane mile? Is it a one mile of road roadway? Regardless of the number of lanes, B one mile of one lane or C a complex government calculation for determining the linear measure of 5,280 feet.
Ted: (21:59)
I think finally I can pull out the bureaucratic Babel for, um, I'll ring in * horn sound*and say B a mile of one lane.
Corey: (22:10)
That is correct. That is correct.
Jen: (22:13)
That would have been my guess.
Corey: (22:14)
It would have been, I was going to get clear on the bumper though.
Ted: (22:16)
I was hoping it wasn't a bureaucratic word, whatever c was there because, uh, and just putting it as the literal term lane miles
Corey: (22:29)
We do. We do. And, and, and I can tell you, um, so I took over the division in 2013. Okay. And in 20, uh, in 2013, the answer would have been c, right. So there was some kind of a calculation. Um, we were reporting at the time that we had, you know, over 7,000 lane miles in the city. And, um, at, at the time, um, prior to me getting here, um, management had some sort of calculation where they took turn lanes and things of that nature into account.
Corey: (23:00)
Um, or yeah, it was really difficult to understand. And, and while, uh, while we use lane miles, um, as, as a measurement, when we're planning our paving, uh, programs, we go ahead and we use, we convert into square yards, so that'll take in the of the turn lanes and uh, and things of that nature. Um, so that we get that all captured nurse Square yardage for our paving program. Um, but for the public, we want to let them know this is how many lane miles that we're paving. And Elaine Mile is one mile of one lane. And for example, if you were driving on academy one center line mile would be one mile of academy, but if you're talking lane miles, that one center line mile would translate into six lane miles because there's three lanes in each direction. Got It. Okay. Yup. So, so it's the, it's the amount of lanes as it chip, right?
Jen: (23:52)
You gotta you gotta count every little bit.
Ted: (23:54)
And I think when you're guys, his press releases come out or I've been in some of the, to see quarterly meetings and for a lay man like myself, it's very digestible when when you see x amount of lane miles or this amount of money is what we expect this year and how much money will be spent this year through 2C. Um, quickly can you just hit on about average what we're, what we're paving lane miles since a two C.
Corey: (24:18)
And so, uh, when we're looking at to see was a approximately a thousand lane miles over five years. So what average average is out over, uh, 200 lane miles per year. The first three years of two C we exceeded the 200 lane miles per year mark. In year four, uh, we're under, uh, the 200 lane miles. Um, in year five, next year we're actually going to be back over the 200 lane miles.
Corey: (24:41)
And, uh, at this point in time, we are on course to exceed what we originally had for our lane mile count, um, in 2 c. So we're, uh, we're going to be on budget and ahead of schedule.
Ted: (24:54)
That's what you always like to hear, especially with your government. Uh, and to w what question is this? Five or six.
Corey: (24:59)
we are on, we're on run number five. All right. Okay. And, and um, this is a, this is an interesting one. Again, we'll go, uh, we'll go with the, um, with the standard multiple choice. Uh, if you put all of the lane miles and Colordo springs in a straight line, how far would they stretch a from Colorado Springs to Washington, D C B from Colorado Springs to Rome, Italy and s or c from Colorado Springs to the Moon, *bell sound*.
Jen: (25:32)
d c.
Ted: (25:34)
Oh, I actually know the answer. *honking* I know this one before or you said, just because I've heard council member Yolanda Aveola say to Rome, Italy.
Corey: (25:45)
It is to Rome. So this is about that.
Ted: (25:48)
I listened to my counsel and there you go. Right? It's all, you always learn something.
Corey: (25:53)
It's what if you were to take, if you were to take all of our lane miles in the city and put them back to back, right. And make one straight line out of all of our lane miles. And, and we, we throw these little fun facts out there so that we can put the, I like to try to put things in perspective for the citizens,.
Jen: (26:10)
Because you just educated me. I have to keep in mind that we have six lanes on academy.
Corey: (26:13)
And so, and so we started doing this, you know, we get a lot of calls like, hey, you say you're out there filling potholes and I've never seen a pothole truck out there. And so we started putting it in perspective for people to say, Hey, uh, I have eight pothole trucks, eight. And if you took all of our lane miles, put them back to back to back. Um, and, and they stretched from here to Rome, Italy, and then you sprinkled eight trucks on that roadway. There's a pretty good chance you might never see one. Right?
Jen: (26:42)
You gotta give us just a minute sometimes.
Corey: (26:43)
So we, yeah, so we, we started, uh, taking a look at this. Now, I, I will put the caveat on this is, um, uh, this is when we had just over 5,900 lane miles, right? And so I need to get into Google earth and figure out a new city because we are actually past Rome. Italy at this point are, are currently in my account has grown to over 6,000 lane miles now.
Ted: (27:05)
Well, you gotta give us a new city. Yeah. So next time you're on.
Corey: (27:07)
We'll find a new, uh, a new city to me.
Jen: (27:11)
That's your homework.
Corey: (27:11)
That's my homework. Right? Right. So, uh, so that was the reason .
Jen: (27:14)
We obviously have some homework to do or I do.
Ted: (27:16)
Well, yeah, I mean I'm, I'm crushing it over here right now. It's three to one by the way, with two questions left. So let's see if you can tie her up.
Corey: (27:24)
Jen, that here's your chance, right? This is a true or false. We've got a 50% chance to be quick on the buzzer. Okay. So this is a true or false 2C is going to pave all of our roadways. *bell*.
Jen: (27:36)
That is false .
Corey: (27:37)
That is false.
Jen: (27:37)
I wish it were true.
Corey: (27:38)
Yes. I wish it were true as well. So, again, with such a large infrastructure, um, and, and how bad our infrastructure is, uh, was before when we started to see, um, we've, we've always touted to see as a really good step in the right direction, right? Um, it's kind of like a, uh, pulling a foot out of the grave, if you will. Um, but it's not going to fix everything, right? It's not gonna fix all of our roads. Uh, we really targeted because again, um, it's got a five year sunset. We didn't know if there was going to be another 2C or an extension, uh, of any kind. And we knew that when it got voted in, we had an opportunity for five years to make a difference. That's why we targeted the arterial roadways and the collector roadways that most of our citizens travel on, uh, was to make the biggest impact in a short amount of time as we could. Um, but yes, 2C, will not fix
Ted: (28:29)
all of our, but you probably hear a lot, and this is a teaser to what we're going to talk about right after this quiz, but, uh, you probably hear a lot of complaints about my, a residential street hasn't been paved. So I'll let you let it fester on that one for a second and we'll get there. Yeah. All right, well we'll get to number seven. Oh, obviously not. We'll get to number seven here. Last question. Okay, last question. It's
Corey: (28:54)
going to be a multiple choice. Uh, how many lane miles were paved in the first three years of 2C was it a 678 B? 250. Two or c? 1008 and.
Jen: (29:11)
the first how many years ?
Corey: (29:12)
In the first three years.
Jen: (29:14)
Okay. *bell sound* I say it is a [cheering].
Corey: (29:18)
we're at a tie. Uh, so yeah. So in the first year, in the first three years of, 2c if we were able to pave, uh, 678 lane miles, which is roughly 200. Yeah, roughly 200 a year. Um, so we should have been at six, 600 lane miles. So we, again, we exceeded, um, in the first three years. And we need to take, the interesting thing is when, you know, when take a look at and what we were able to do in the first three years of 2C it was more than we had paved in the first 10 years of, uh, the PPRTA, which was our previous funding source, our current funding source as well for our preventative maintenance lives, as we spoke about earlier. But, uh, pre 2C PPTA was trying to take care of the paving, the pre overlay concrete that chip seal the cracks. He was trying to take care of everything and there's simply just, there wasn't enough for a city our size. And, uh, so, uh, through the ballot measure 2C, uh, again, we've not only been able to start taking care of our roadways properly with the mill and pave and the concrete operations, but those PPRTA dollars have now, um, gone in great directions and made our preventative maintenance just that much better.
Ted: (30:23)
Well, Jen, it ended up being three times.
Ted: (30:27)
We're tied [inaudible]
Ted: (30:33)
and actually, uh, once I started thinking about it, I must've been keeping the score wrong because three to three would mean that we answered six questions. Right. And I think we both bombed the first two. So you know what we're just saying. It's a tie. But as we kind of run up against the clock here, cause we'd like to keep these these quick, um, we do want to hit on that question that I was, uh, uh, just alluding to, people have been complaining about the residential streets. These haven't been paved in years. Is there a possibility for that to happen next?
Corey: (31:04)
Yeah, so that's a, that's a great question. Um, what's next is, uh, hopefully, um, the citizens have, uh, have seen the good work that Tusi has been doing, um, within our right of way. And, uh, we can come to the voters, uh, with an extension. Um, so again, 2c it as a five year program, we were really trying to concentrate on those arterial and collector roadways, uh, with it. And, uh, some, some quick stats. Um, and when we talk about, uh, uh, these, I'm going to throw out an acronym, I'll, uh, so I don't get buzzed on. Uh, I'll go ahead and tell you
Ted: (31:41)
I'm hovering the button right now. Uh,
Corey: (31:43)
but we'll talk about our, our OCI values, which is our overall condition index, okay. Of our roadways. And so what we do is we go out and we rate our roadways. We, we inspect them, we give them a grade. Uh, all of those go into a database. And so we know, uh, every condition of every roadway in town currently at this moment in time. Um, and, and we can pull that data out of the database so that we can make informed objective decisions on what roadways we need to pay. It's not just a, hey, let's throw a dart at a map and wherever it lands, we'll pave that road. Um, and you know, we actually, uh, we actually use a objective data to do this. We also, uh, um, use some subjective data, um, on that because of our coordination process, we're looking at these roadways again, holistically, and we coordinate with Colorado Springs, utilities, traffic engineering, engineering, all of these entities out there that we coordinate with so that we can make sure that we are, um, treating these roadways again, holistically in that we're not just paving the top, but we're also putting in our new infrastructure underneath.
Corey: (32:45)
The last thing we want to do is pave a road and then a water main breaks and we have to go dig up that new road. So we're coordinating with Colorado Springs utilities to go ahead and upgrade their infrastructure in front of, to c so that we can have a, so that we can have these roadways lasts as long as we can. And again, it's getting better bang for the buck for the rate payer. Slash. Taxpayer. Um, so in 2015, our OCI values, um, when you took a look at our entire network, 39%, uh, we're in the good to fair, um, category 53% needed to be overlaid and just over 7% needed to be reconstructed. Okay. Our current network, OCI values are, um, the good to fair is up to 51%. So that went from a 39 to a 51. Our needs overlay is at a 41%.
Corey: (33:34)
So that went down from a 53 to a 41%, uh, through the first three years of c. Um, and our reconstructs are still just over a 7%, because two C's not targeting reconstructs. Right? Okay. Uh, and then our 2020 projected, so when 2c is over, we're projecting that are good to fair. We'll go from a 51 to a 54%. Our 51 Kirtland current percent to a 54%. Um, our poor, uh, that needs to be overlayed still, we'll go from a 41% down to a 38. So we're still making progress. And then again, our 7%, uh, reconstructs is gonna stay the same. So that kind of just shows the trends for, to see and how, what kind of, uh, progress we're making. But that's not taking care of our residential roadways. Back to your question before Ted, uh, with an extension, I can tell you that, um, we have been planning extensively, um, we've already gone to a city council will be going to council again, uh, next week, um, to try to today the actual podcast is coming out, uh, oh gosh.
Ted: (34:35)
On the day of, uh, you know, their vote. Alright.
Corey: (34:39)
So today, uh, we'll be going to a city council, um, to a, to get an extension put on a, on the ballot in November. I can tell, uh, I can tell you that 50% of the 2c extension list is in residential roadways. So we are now shifting from targeting the arterial and collector roadways to start targeting our residential roadways.
Jen: (35:02)
So that's if the voters approve that, ithey will so progress in those area.
Corey: (35:04)
, Correct.
Ted: (35:06)
Well in the proposal that council's voting on, um, it's also, uh, you know, we talked about what was the, what's the tax right now on per cent or sorry,0.62. Um, and then that goes down to what does it again, correct. We'll be, we're proposing that we drop it from a 0.62 down to a 0.57, okay. Uh, percent penny, still less than and even less of a tag going down.
Corey: (35:31)
Right. And so the goal of the goal is to get our network or right away network to a sustainable level to see was a great step in the right direction. And extension would continue that step and hopefully get us to a place where network-wide uh, we could be at a sustainable level to where that uh, we went from a 0.62 to a 0.57 and then somewhere in the future, uh, we can even drop that 0.57 down even lower, uh, to a level that, uh, we would then be able to sustain our infrastructure moving forward.
Jen: (36:02)
Great. Well, thanks for giving us the rundown on what I mean, where we've come from and where we're going. Cause it's pretty impressive when you say, I mean progress has been a lot of work.
Corey: (36:12)
Uh, you know, everybody, everywhere I go says, Hey, great job, good job. I would be remiss if I didn't, uh, uh, say that this is not me.
Corey: (36:20)
Uh, this is a very hardworking group of people. Um, both in the contracted program side, on the asset management side, right away management and our folks, uh, on our, in house, in our, in house crews. Um, if it wasn't for them filling the potholes, uh, 2c would not be the success it is today. If 2c wasn't out there, uh, paving our roadways, um, we would not be able to, to handle the amount of preventative maintenance that we are doing today. So it all goes hand in hand. Um, all of the people within the division and outside the division, um, you know, budget and finance, all of the, all of the outside folks that are, that are helping us through this whole project. Um, you know, I say a big thank you to all of them and they're the ones that, uh, that are making it work.
Jen: (37:04)
That's for sure. And please, I'm just gonna give a quick plug for when you see all those folks out there working hard, um, slow down, a little for them. Uh, I know that it's frustrating to run into all those cone zones, but hopefully after hearing these questions and answers, you have a little bit of background on how critical that work is.
Corey: (37:21)
Absolutely. So if I could give a plug to that, uh, you know, we, we realize that, um, we're, we're fixing a lot of roadways, however, um, we are making life difficult for a lot of people, uh, to get, to work, to go to school, to go shopping, all of that. Uh, so we have a, uh, cone zone map on our website, um, that will, uh, identify the majority of the active cone zones, uh, in the city. Um, and we have partnered with the WAYZ applications.
Corey: (37:47)
So if you have a smart phone, download the ways application, um, and you'll be able to see these cones zones, uh, before you get to them and hopefully be rerouted. And, and we're trying to put as many tools out there and communicate as much as we can to make life easier for the citizens. Uh, because, uh, you know, I think the mayor said at best is, uh, uh, it's, it's wonderful to see the cone zones out there, uh, during paving season, but it's also a bit of a pain to see the cone zones out there during paving seasons.
Ted: (38:14)
Well, and then that pain, uh, don't go rushing through the cone zones either. Uh, keep your guys safe. Yes, absolutely. Um, I'm sure you guys have a lot of close calls. Uh, especially, we know some of the driving around Colorado Springs,.
Jen: (38:26)
right. And these men and women have families that they would like to go home to.
Corey: (38:29)
So every night they want to go home. They've, their, uh, their, their fathers, their mothers, their, uh, grandparents, their,
Corey: (38:36)
um, their people. And so, uh, people trying to do their job just like everybody else out there and they're working hard. So yes, if you could slow down, that would be fantastic. Um, and again, use a, use some of those tools that we're trying to put out there and, and uh, and just try to go around it if you can write.
Jen: (38:51)
and thank you for your patients because it is literally paying off.
Ted: (38:54)
Yes, yes. And uh, and you guys are a big part of it out there that are, that are listening.
Jen: (38:59)
Thank you Corey.
Ted: (38:59)
Yes. Fantastic. This has taught me so much and that I also tied Jen, which, uh, is a little hurtful. I should have beaten her. But uh, on the next episode just pushing forward, um, we'll be talking with Richard Melody who works closely with you guys, obviously on the, on the stormwater side of things and we're going to be answering tough questions like, is stormwater one word or two? It's always confused me when I write it out. I don't know if it's one word or two.
Jen: (39:28)
The big question.
Ted: (39:28)
These are the big questions that we're trying to answer on this podcast. Um, also re like, subscribe. Anything else you want to say? Jen,.
Jen: (39:37)
thank you for listening, Corey. Last, last bit.
Corey: (39:40)
Uh, I think I'm good.
Ted: (39:41)
Perfect. All right, everyone, we'll see you on the next episode, right? Like, subscribe, shameless promotion. Thanks a lot. Air Horn. [inaudible].