Peoples Natural Gas Co. and the Altoona Water Authority are both conducting major, multi-year infrastructure replacement projects in the city, which has led to digging in the streets, rough rides for motorists and many complaints.

City Manager Christopher McGuire is asking for patience and understanding, while the city puts into practice a strategy designed to make the best of a difficult situation.

“We understand people’s aggravation and frustration,” McGuire said in an interview Tuesday at City Hall. “We’re frustrated as well.”

The gas company is replacing old cast iron and bare steel piping with plastic pipes, based on a Long-Term Infrastructure Improvement Project approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, according to the company’s website. The old pipes tend to leak methane, which contributes to global warming, and is vulnerable to damage from freezing and thawing — in contrast to the more flexible, non-corroding plastic, the website states.

The water authority is working to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Lead and Copper Rule, which will require excavations in the streets to determine where there are flexible lead “goosenecks” connecting water mains with utility-owned service lines that are made of galvanized steel. The authority is also working on projects that eliminate infiltration of groundwater into sewer lines.

Broadband companies have also been excavating on the streets, adding to the problem.

These utility organizations have been applying cold patch asphalt to make temporary repairs, but the cold patch often settles, creating dips.

Beale Avenue has “been horrible for months on top of months,” Councilman Dave Butterbaugh said at a recent council meeting.

The area around Fourth Avenue between 18th and 21st streets has been “a mess,” said Councilman Dave Ellis.

“We’re getting a boatload of complaints,” Ellis said.

People are even complaining about damage to their vehicles, according to McGuire.

Over the next several years, the city will be conducting its repaving projects in areas where the utility companies are not going to be doing major work, and in areas where they have already completed such work, according to McGuire.

The city is carrying out this strategy by coordinating closely with those companies — and with

PennDOT, which is responsible for projects on the state roads through the city, McGuire said.

It’s all being done in the context of a street system that is in need of a serious upgrade, according to McGuire.

In the last several decades — even the last 100 years — there has been minimal street reconstruction, according to McGuire.

The repairs have been the equivalent of “Band-Aids,” he said. “(And) we need to rip the Band-Aid(s) off and do things correctly,” he said.

There has been asphalt laid over brick pavement, asphalt laid over concrete; even asphalt laid over shallow utility lines and old trolley tracks.

There are curb reveals that have nearly or fully disappeared due to asphalt buildup over the years, curbs that have been raised with asphalt topping and streets that were never properly built in the first place in areas that the city annexed, he said.

There may also be subsoil problems in places.

That means that in many cases, repaving lasts only a decade before it deteriorates, instead of 30 or 40 years, as it should, he said.

It also means drainage problems — including water running over low curbs into residential lots — and tripping hazards, he said.

Full reconstruction would require utility adjustments in some cases, especially sewer lines, some of which are close to the surface to ensure that their contents flow downgrade.

Full reconstruction would also mean new curbing and sidewalks.

Ideally, 65% of the city’s 180 street-miles should be reconstructed, he said.

Reconstruction means a new 8-inch base, with 2-3 inches of asphalt on top, he said.

That’s problematic, however, because at $1.2 million to $1.4 million per mile, it would cost between $140 million and $163 million, he said.

Such numbers are “ungodly,” he stated.

A more typical milling and overlay project costs only about $200,000 per mile, or 15% of full reconstruction cost, according to McGuire.

Thus, the ideal fix is not only financially impractical. It’s also logistically impractical, as the asphalt plants that need to produce the paving material only operate in this part of the country between April and October, McGuire said.

Moreover, extensive reconstruction projects done all at once would create parking problems for the many families who have no other place to put their cars but on the streets, he said.

There would also be massive traffic snarls, he said.

People have asked why the city doesn’t pursue grants for repaving, McGuire said.

Community Development Block Grants can be used for that purpose, but only in low-to-moderate income areas, he said.

The city has used CDBG funding this way for years.

The city also uses its liquid fuels money — doled out to municipalities by the state from the oil company franchise tax.

But those sources are not “magic bullet(s),” he said.

Still, the city is hoping to establish a 20-year paving cycle, while continuing to coordinate with utility companies to minimize excavations that follow paving projects, McGuire said.

One bit of good news: PennDOT plans to repave Beale Avenue this summer, including a section owned by the city, McGuire said.

“Given the limited funding available, we are focused on financial stewardship,” he wrote in a letter to the Mirror.

“I am asking everybody to bear with us,” he said. “I’m asking for strategic patience.”

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.