Over the coming weeks, City of Topeka staff will present the proposed 2025-2034 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to the Governing Body for consideration. Once the Governing Body has considered and ultimately adopted the final CIP book of projects, the CIP will be formalized through a resolution and ordinance.
What is the CIP?
The CIP is a long-range plan that helps ensure the annual operating budget, capital improvement budget, and long-term financial forecasts align and support the city’s strategic goals and infrastructure needs. The CIP is developed to identify how much funding the city will need to set aside in order to build and improve our infrastructure, lay out project locations, and determine the timing of all capital improvement projects over several years.
The CIP shows capital spending over the next 10 years and is separate from the City’s annual operating budget. Funding for the CIP comes from a variety of sources including: sales tax, city operating funds, and revenue and general obligation bonds. The first 3 years of the CIP are referred to as the Capital Improvement Budget (CIB). The first year of the CIB consists of projects that will be initiated and/or completed during the upcoming year. The second- and third-year of the CIB includes projects that are in the preparation phase.
In order to be included in the CIP, a project should meet at least one of the following criteria:
- Real property acquisition
- Construction of new facilities and/or addition to an existing city facility costing $50,000 or greater
- Public infrastructure projects
- Information technology projects costing $50,000 or greater
Proposed 2025-2034 CIP Highlighted Projects
Public Works Projects
- Proposed funding increase for various street maintenance programs
- Pavement Management Program and Street Contract Preventative Maintenance Program increased $1.25m and $1m respectively to totals of $11m and $3m. The Pavement Management Program provides support for streets that qualify for mill and overlay, cracksealing and microsurfacing as treatment types. The city uses the pavement condition index (PCI) to determine the treatment type for a street. Generally, streets with a PCI between 31-55 will qualify for mill and overlay and streets with a PCI between 56-70 will qualify for cracksealing and microsurfacing as a treatment type.
- SW 29th – Burlingame Road to Topeka Boulevard
- This project is slated for 2025 construction and includes road and stormwater improvements.
- SE 29th – Kansas Avenue to Adams
- This project is slated for 2025 and will be coordinated with the bridge improvements being made over Butcher Creek.
- SW Topeka Boulevard – 15th to 21st
- This project is pavement rehabilitation along the Boulevard. The project was originally scheduled for 2028, but has been moved up to 2025.
Utilities Projects
- 2025 program funding increased
- 2025 Water Main Replacement funding increased by $1.6M and Wastewater Lining & Replacement increased by $1.3M.
- Sanitary Sewer Interceptor Maintenance & Rehabilitation Program
- Redistributed 2026 program funding to the 2025 and 2027 program years to encompass the large scale of projects included in the program.
- SE California & SE 4th St
- This project is planned for 2026 and addresses capacity concerns in the basin as recommended in the Stormwater Master Plan.
- Prairie Road – SW 21st to SW 23rd St
- This project is planned for 2025 and will upsize approximately 2600 LF of Storm sewer in an area where significant flood impacts were observed in 2020.
Project Spending by Asset Type
The table to the right highlights various high-level categories that the city may appropriate CIP funding towards over the next five years:
|
CIP Categories |
5 Year Totals |
|
Public Works: Street Projects |
$199,155,236 |
|
Public Works: Non-Street Projects |
$67,942,525 |
| Water Projects | $125,112,862 |
| Stormwater Projects | $48,923,704 |
| Wastewater Projects | $95,105,000 |
| Public Safety Expenditures | $22,897,134 |
| Information Technology Expenditures | $3,615,540 |
| Totals | $562,752,001 |