St. Cloud Council Approves Billing for Resurfacing Despite Resident Concerns

(KNSI) – The St. Cloud City Council, Monday night, approved billing residents for 14 miles of resurfacing work done last year despite complaints from property owners saying the pavement is cracking more than it should so soon after it was laid down.

City Engineer Zach Borgerding reevaluated the work and explained to KNSI News what they found. “The areas that were brought into question fall within the amount of cracking that we would anticipate for this type of improvement for an overlay. A project like this, we would anticipate the reflective cracking; which is the existing cracks that were already on the roadway that we didn’t remove, to make their way to the surface. And those are what we’re seeing out there.”

Around a half dozen residents testified on April 7th about what they believed was excessive street cracking in the nine months since the work was finished, and feared the road surface wouldn’t hold up. There was no second public hearing at the meeting.

Staff says the expected life span of the road is ten years, but, like any road, Borgerding says the secret to getting the most out of an overlaid street is to show it a little TLC. “As long as we continue to provide the preventative maintenance, the crack sealing and the seal coating or the reclamation type of projects, that wouldn’t affect the overall longevity of the road.”

He says cracks can be filled when they reach about a quarter of an inch in size. Anything smaller than that will not hold the sealant in place.

The council unanimously gave the thumbs up to proceed with assessing roughly $2.3 million in charges to property owners for three major projects: sewer, street, and sidewalk improvements in the Pantown neighborhood, the reconstruction of University Drive, and the resurfacing of residential streets.

Payments for these assessments wouldn’t begin until 2026.

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