‘Right treatment at the right time’: City of Bend highlights street preservation efforts and winter preparations

(Update: adding interview with City of Bend official)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Bend’s relatively new Transportation Utility Fee is changing how the city maintains and clears its streets — from fresh pavement in the summer to expanded plow coverage in the winter.

The fee began appearing on Bend utility bills in 2024, after city leaders identified about a $7 million annual shortfall in road maintenance funding. The charge is structured in phases, with the first phase starting in July 2024 and a second phase that increases residential rates and revises how most businesses are billed.

City officials say the goal is to create a stable, dedicated funding source for day-to-day transportation operations and long-term street preservation, separate from one-time construction funds.

“We’ve been working hard on bringing our street conditions up,” said City of Bend Transportation and Mobility Director David Abbas. “The Transportation Utility Fee that folks are seeing on their bills this past year — Phase 1 last year and Phase 2 implemented this year — has really helped us ramp up that work.”

With the added revenue, the city’s Street Preservation Program completed about 67 lane miles of work this construction season, at a cost of roughly $4.85 million. Abbas said that includes a mix of paving, slurry seal and other preservation treatments that extend the life of the road surface and keep it in better condition longer.

“We were able to increase our street preservation efforts — 67 lane miles at about $4.85 million this year,” Abbas said. “Pretty good year for us.” He added that staff are focused on “the right treatment at the right time,” so streets are sealed before they deteriorate to the point of needing far more expensive reconstruction.

“You don’t want to wait until it requires that expensive reconstruction,” he said. “Keep it sealed up, and not have those cracks and potholes that everybody doesn’t like.”

City information explains that the Transportation Utility Fee is meant to fund maintenance and operations of the existing transportation system — things like pavement preservation, bike lanes, sidewalks, and winter operations — rather than major new road projects.

The fee is charged to all developed properties within city limits, with single-family homes paying a flat monthly rate and non-residential properties charged based on use and size, such as retail, office or industrial space. Households enrolled in the city’s utility assistance program receive a reduced rate.

City leaders and business groups have said the fee was chosen instead of a local gas tax or higher property taxes because it can be applied more broadly, including to tax-exempt properties that still generate traffic and use city streets.

Officials also note that the funding is intended to address backlogs in basic maintenance that, if left unchecked, could lead to higher long-term costs and more disruptive reconstruction projects.

When snow season arrives, Abbas said the same fee is helping the city keep up with Bend’s growth and rising expectations for winter road conditions.

“We continue as a growing city, so the transportation utility fee I mentioned also helps in the wintertime,” he said. “We brought on a few more staff and some equipment to try to keep up with the needs of the community — more proactive snow plowing and sanding, and things to try to keep the roads safe for folks.”

Bend now runs overlapping plow shifts, with on-call crews available nights and weekends, and the department can scale up to 24-hour operations during major storms. The city also offers an online plow-tracking map, updated every 30 minutes, so drivers can check where plows have been before they head out.

With more snow in the forecast as winter approaches, Abbas said drivers still play a big role in staying safe, even with expanded coverage.

“Slow down, be safe, give yourself extra time,” he said. “Our crews will do the best we can to have the roads safe.”

The city says it expects to maintain a similar level of preservation and winter operations work next year, supported in part by the transportation utility fee. Staff plan to continue monitoring pavement conditions and winter response metrics as Bend grows, adjusting how the fee is used to balance long-term maintenance needs with day-to-day safety on the streets.