CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Let's 'shift gears', pump the breaks, and pull over to talk about 'Driving You Crazy!'
We spoke with Corpus Christi public works regarding their efforts to address your complaints about the conditions we are forced to drive on every day.
3News Anchor John-Thomas Kobos visited with the interim director about how they pay close attention to our segment and want to quickly respond, ultimately repairing our busy Coastal Bend roadways.
Drive the streets of Corpus Christi and you roll the dice.
Is there a pothole that is going to quickly change my mood from nice to incredibly frustrated?
'There's too many. Every time I turn around I'm banging my head against the wall because you're trying to do your best with what you got, said interim public works director Rolando Mata. He gets your pain too. He has battled daily over the last 18 months to discover which streets need the most attention. 'It's going to take some time. And that is why we have a 5 year forecast plan because not everything can be done all at once.'
Mata is part of a new administration that inherited an outdated system for managing streets which is why there is ongoing training, new methodology for approaching dilapidated streets, and recently approved, a beefier budget to improve conditions.
The City of Corpus Christi just signed off on its biggest fiscal budget yet with $122 million dollars in public works improvements. $4.2 million of that is dedicated to the streets team.
Mata added 'We're putting back an investment back into the city and it may be as simple as doing a pothole repair or maybe as simple as doing a whole bond project but it's an investment back into the city.' It also includes 2 new vehicles and an additional 12 workers to the current crew of 103. 'We're trying to use every resource that we can. Trying to have our groups work 50 hours a week.'
One of those resources includes Kiiitv and you the viewer.
Thanks to 'Driving You Crazy,' of the 16 streets featured this season, 11 have been repaired so far with the rest coming according to Mata. 'Certainly we have a long task. This is not the only 16 streets out there they need repair. We want to thank Kiii for doing this because that tells us where the need is.'
In the meantime, a consultant group has come in to determine our pavement index condition: a rating system to see how bad our streets really are. They aren't good. In fact, the last rating a couple of years ago, based out of 100, had us around 50%.
Mata said the goal is to get to between 70 and 80% in the coming years. 'It identifies the whole city. You do want to have residentals that are happy, businesses that are happy with all the improvements that are happening.'
You can call 361-886-CITY (2489) or visit their website here.
The city is also working on a '3-1-1' notification system as well and performing a 'Pothole Blitz' twice a year.