Butler should consider itself fortunate to have experienced the construction of three new, major bridges in a span of about five years.

With the opening of the new $9.5 million Wayne Street Viaduct, easier-than-ever access has been opened to the South Side and, for traffic coming from the South Side, similar access to the business district.

That project followed by about three years the completion of the General Richard Butler Bridge, which carries traffic to and from South Main Street (Route 8).

The third bridge — the $2.5 million South Monroe Street Bridge that has been renamed Look Out Point Bridge — is targeted for completion next month, ending a travel headache for motorists who use that route for access between the South Side and the city's east and north sides.

To say that the city has experienced more travel headaches than usual this year is an understatement, even when compared with the General Butler Bridge detours. However, the two new bridges, coupled with the General Butler Bridge, will make many people quickly forget the bumpy, slow-moving and otherwise inconvenient detours they have had to travel for much of this year.

If there is any criticism to be leveled, it is that the city made no effort to improve some of the detour routes — not even minor improvements — that would have made travel on some of those routes easier.

But in contemplating what the three new bridges mean to Butler, city leaders must abandon any thought that they mark an end. Instead, they mark a beginning — the beginning of what must be a concentrated effort to repair city streets throughout the municipality. So much needs to be done to attack deplorable street conditions that have existed for decades, not just for a few years.

A new mind-set must motivate city leaders in terms of street improvements. It's a mind-set that so far has been ignored by most city council members — as evidenced most recently by this year's meager commitment to city-paid street repairs.

The city is so much more than the downtown and the state routes that pass through it. Decrepit residential neighborhood streets don't reflect pride in the city, something important to current residents and also to out-of-towners contemplating relocating here. City leaders must acknowledge that in looking forward to 2010 and beyond.

The inconveniences of 2009 were a positive foundation. Local officials must start building on that foundation, by finding ways to allocate more city money for street fix-ups.

From the vantage point of the three new bridges, Butler is lucky. However, city leaders hold the key to whether that good fortune continues.