Street repair work could be on rise in La Crosse

City hoping to push repairs
from 3-4 to 6 miles a year

Good news could be on the way for those sick of bouncing around down the streets of La Crosse.

City public works director Dale Hexom is working on a plan to increase the number of street miles the city repairs every year. 

One of the ways he plans on doing that is to just make sure the street equipment is up to date

“My superintendents are out of town looking at a replacement paver,” Hexom said. “The paver we’ve been using is 30 years old and is obsolete and the manufacturer is out of business. We need to have reliable equipment.”

Hexom also says he’ll also work on ways to get private contractors more interested in the typically smaller street repair jobs the city puts out for bid every year.

“Last cons season, Second Street to State Street was all paved by Mathy Construction,” Hexom said, “and we need to look at more of that type of work.”

Currently Hexom’s crews tackle 3-4 miles of streets per year. He wants to push that to possibly over 6 miles. The city has about 220 miles of streets altogether.

“Depending on the construction season and other projects that are going on,” Hexom said, “internally the street department, that’s about their max. They can’t really do many more miles than that.”