Los Angeles Board of Public works president Kevin James climbed atop an asphalt-laying machine and helped repave a section of Heliotrope Drive in East Hollywood on Tuesday as part of National Public Works Week.

Public works commissioner Kevin James, top left, operates a loader during a National Public Works Week event on Tuesday. (photo by Edwin Folven)

James said the Department of Public Works used the street repaving project as a way to highlight infrastructure repairs in local neighborhoods. He added that the bureau is repaving approximately 2,000 lane miles of public streets in Los Angeles during the current fiscal year, and plans are in the works to create a ballot measure that would potentially enable the city to repair many more streets in the coming years.

“Right now, it’s well known [that] we are in discussion at city hall whether we are going to the voters to ask them for a half-cent sales tax increase that would provide for street repairs throughout the city, as well as sidewalk repairs,” James said. “The decision has not yet been made by the city council, and in another six weeks, we’ll be able to [explain] a lot more about that. But in the meantime, we are completing 2,000 miles of street repairs.”

James added that the potential sales tax increase would allow the city to repair thousands of miles of the city’s most damaged streets. Streets conditions are graded on a scale of A through F, and currently, the city is concentrating on repaving streets that are ranked as A, B and Cs.  He said it is much less costly to maintain streets that haven’t fallen into disrepair than to completely repair thoroughfares that are heavily damaged.

Currently, approximately 8,200 lane miles of the city’s 28,000 miles of streets are in D or F condition, James said. If the ballot measure is approved, authorities estimate it would generate $3.8 billion for street and sidewalk repairs.

“We can repair forty miles of As, Bs and Cs for the cost of repairing one mile of Ds or Fs,” James said. “We can maintain a street at around $25,000 per mile. If a street falls into disrepair, it can cost $650,000 to $1.5 million per mile to repair.”

James said he is hopeful the ballot measure will be created and approved, and that the city will continue to repair streets as funding allows.

“We are trying to manage our dollars and create a good strategy to protect the As, Bs and Cs,” James said. “We get much more from maintaining our streets and not letting them fall into disrepair.”

If the ballot initiative is approved, the sales tax rate in the city of Los Angeles would be 9.5 percent, according to the California State Board of Equalization.