Politics & Government

City Council Approves $1 Million More for Pothole Repair

Funds come partly from the city's Infrastructure Acceleration Program, which is intended to pay for long-term infrastructure improvements.

As motorists outside City Hall wove through streets gouged with potholes Friday, the Minneapolis City Council approved an additional $1 million to temporarily double road repair crews. 

The measure will increase the number of pavement repair crews patching potholes from four to eight for a period of seven weeks. 

$386,705 of the funding to Minneapolis Public Works comes from the city's remaining 2010 general fund. But the rest of the funding comes from the city's Infrastructure Acceleration Program, which Mayor RT Rybak and other officials have lauded as an example of long-term infrastructure improvement. 

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Ward 13 Council Member Betsy Hodges, who supported the proposal, said it's another example of the city having to eat its seed corn in these times of tightened budgets. 

"The Infrastructure Acceleration Program itself was our rainy day fund," Hodges told the council. "Now it's pouring, so we have to take some of those dollars and put it into our pothole repair." 

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Minneapolitans can help the city deal with potholes by reporting them. 

"I'd urge people to call 311 when they see a pothole," Hodges said, "as long as they can emerge from the pothole and get cell phone coverage again."

 



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