New report: 25 miles of streets repaved and 1,475 sidewalk slabs replaced in Ann Arbor in 2012

What exactly did your city tax dollars pay for in 2012? For starters, about 25 miles of newly paved streets, according to a new report from the city of Ann Arbor.

The report provides a summary of the major street projects that were done during the 2012 construction season using money from the city's street reconstruction millage.

In all, about three dozen streets were resurfaced or reconstructed. The total construction cost was just under $8.2 million — a third of that was spent on major streets and two-thirds on local residential streets.

Some of the roads that saw major reconstruction work included Dexter Avenue, Packard Street, Hill Street and East Stadium Boulevard.

Other major streets that had resurfacing work done included Fifth Avenue, Glen Avenue, Geddes Avenue, Huron Parkway, Liberty Street, Research Park Drive and Seventh Street.

Many other neighborhood streets were resurfaced as well.

• Download the full report

The city collected an extra eighth of a mill in property taxes last year from a new sidewalk repair millage that was approved by voters and rolled into the street millage.

The amount collected in the first year of the new levy was $568,374, plus $17,500 expected from the Downtown Development Authority, the report states.

In 2012, the city replaced about 1,475 slabs of sidewalk through the new program, while trimming an additional 6,380 slabs — at a total cost of $561,000, the report states.

"Based on what we have seen during the 2012 season, we anticipate this volume of work to continue throughout the full five-year cycle of the sidewalk millage," the report states.

The city also used the street millage to pay for 395 new sidewalk curb ramps at street corners that are on a consent decree list.

The city remains under a consent decree stemming from a lawsuit brought by Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living to bring all corner curb ramps into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act on streets that were resurfaced or reconstructed between 1992 and 2004. The work must be done by the year 2018.

The center claimed in its August 2004 lawsuit, assigned to U.S. District Judge John Corbett O'Meara in Detroit, that the city had failed to build curb ramps according to federal and state accessibility guidelines and standards. The lawsuit alleged the city's failure resulted in unsafe sidewalks and intersections for people using wheelchairs who are sometimes forced to travel in the streets.

Of the 395 ramp corners, 166 were completed by the 2012 Ramp Replacement Program at a cost of about $650,000, 144 were completed by the previous fiscal year's Ramp Replacement Program, and 85 were completed through other road resurfacing and private development projects.

The report also includes an accounting of money spent on the $23 million East Stadium Boulevard Bridges Replacement Project that began in November 2011 and was completed in November 2012. The report indicates the following numbers were current as of Sept. 30, 2012:

• $15,317,000 federal funds
• $6,598,600 street millage funds
• $507,200 major street funds
• $57,200 water supply system funds
• $26,400 sewage disposal system funds
• $318,600 alternative transportation funds
• $174,700 stormwater system funds

The city of Ann Arbor has about 300 miles of city streets it's responsible for maintaining, including 100 miles of major streets and 200 miles of residential streets, and 13 bridges.

The city released this map showing tentative 2013 projects: (Download larger map)

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's email newsletters.