PORTLAND, Ore. - The City of Portland has a huge backlog of potholes, ruts and old bridges that need to be fixed and City Commissioner Sam Adams is floating a proposal to ask taxpayers for more money to get the repairs on the aging and deteriorating roads completed.

You probably have a road in your neighborhood that needs some work - perhaps an unpaved area like Southeast 111th Avenue, a road annexed into the city years ago that neighbors say is now a four-wheel drive mecca for teens.

"All night long, kids come driving up it really fast, so it would be nice if it was paved, one neighbor said.

Southeast 111th Avenue is just a short stretch of the 127 miles of unpaved roads in Portland and the 67 miles of roads that do not have sidewalks.

The cost to fix all of the problems is growing year by year.

"Our maintenance backlog is $422 million," said Adams. "It gets worse by $9 million a year."

That is why Adams, who is the Transportation Bureau Commissioner, is taking his request for money to the public, asking for higher taxes or added fees to pay for improvements totaling more than $263 million.

"I knew before I raised it that it was going to be an unpopular issue, but it's never going to get any easier and it's never going to get any less expensive," Adams said.

One of the biggest paving price tags would be a long stretch of 122nd Avenue between Stark and Columbia, a road with a high volume of heavy freight traffic and commuters. The estimated cost for that project is nearly $12 million.

According to Portland Department of Transportation (PDOT) Engineers, 82nd Avenue is one of the most dangerous streets. They identified six high crash zones and a need for five pedestrian safety projects. Projects on this road alone total more than $780,000.

Safety projects for bikes, signals and improvements near schools across the city comes to $25 million.

It will cost $3.5 million to finish some of the unpaved streets in the city and $2.5 million for increased enforcement in some areas - patrol cars and red light cameras.

Factor in engineering fees and other costs totaling almost $33 million and you end up with more than a quarter of a billion dollars in improvements.

Portlanders we talked to are split on whether they would be willing to pick up the cost.

"I would be more willing to pay for other areas of, you know, tax money can be better spent elsewhere. So, I guess my answer would be no," said Cecelia Tanaka.

"If I owned my own home and it went on the ballot, well, like education and the libraries and everything, well OK," said Teresa Adams.

"Yes, I also think that they should have allocated and done a lot better job in the past with the money they've already had," said Ken Petri.

The City Auditor criticized PDOT and its paving practices in a series of reports late last year. The title of the report released in July 2006 summed up its findings - 'More proactive maintenance could preserve existing streets within existing funding.'

Auditors said PDOT was reacting to its worst street needs while ignoring maintenance to protect good roads, a point KATU asked about when we met with PDOT engineers.

"The auditor's office said that we could be more efficient and we've taken some actions to do that," said Mark Lear, PDOT Special Projects Manager.

In particular, the engineers said they are getting better deals for paving supplies and making sure work meets quality standards so roads last longer. However, even with the cost-saving practices, they said Portland cannot maintain and repair its roads without more money.

Adams said waiting will only make the problem more expensive and more dangerous.

"If there's no new money, then we're going to go into the hole another $100 million over the next 10 years," he said. "So instead of $422 million, it will be $522 million in the hole. I mean, these are just the realities as public commissioner I am dealing with and I want the public to know."

The auditor's office said it will re-audit PDOT this fall to make sure Portland's road dollars are being spent wisely.

"To see whether those recommendations have been implemented, so that's part of it," said Audit Services Director Drummond Kahn. "Are we getting the best value for the aggregate, does it meet our expectations, the city's standards for quality and have we outsourced correctly for those road projects?"