Since You Asked: Cities differ on repaving of streets on bridge

Q: When will Fifth Street in Marysville and Bridge Street in Yuba City be repaved? This street is in terrible condition on both sides of the river.

A: Sooner or later.

Yuba City is working on a plan to replace the Fifth Street Bridge, according to public works director George Musallam.

Musallam hopes to kick off the $60 million project by the spring of 2015.

"It would replace the existing bridge and include work on the approaches on both sides of the bridge," Musallam explained.

They're preparing various environmental reports and documents, which should be completed next spring. Construction preparation is expected to take another year.

In the meantime, Yuba City plans to spend a few thousand to grind down some of the rougher sections of Bridge Street, particularly between Cooper Avenue and Plumas Street.

Deputy Public Works Director Diana Langley said they are negotiating with a contractor and hope to have the road smoothed out some time in the next few months.

But while Yuba City has big, pricey plans in the works, Marysville is more than a little tapped out money-wise.

Marysville has no immediate plans to grind out the rough edges on Fifth Street, but it's on the to-do list.

Recent work on Third Street cost the cash-strapped city about $1.3 million, so it may be a while before Marysville can afford to work on another heavily traveled road, according to City Services Director Dave Lamon.

"The city doesn't generate enough local revenue to tackle those types of projects as much as we'd like," Lamon said. "We know it needs to be done, but we'll need to get a fair chunk of funding from the state and federal governments — and that kind of funding has been a little irregular."

Ultimately, both sides would like to work together — with help from both Yuba and Sutter counties — to completely repave that stretch of road from Highway 99 all the way Highway 70.

But that project is so far in the future, they haven't even started working on a timeline or cost projection.

Since You Asked is published on Mondays. Send questions to reporter Rob Parsons at the Appeal-Democrat, 1530 Ellis Lake Drive, Marysville, CA 95901, email him at rparsons@appealdemocrat.com or call 749-4785.