With a statewide multibillion dollar infrastructure bond proposal looking less likely by the week, two L.A. city councilmembers want L.A. to move ahead with its own bond.

Councilmembers Tony Cardenas and Greig Smith both of the San Fernando Valley unveiled a proposal Wednesday to put a $1.5 billion bond before city voters this November to improve the condition of city streets.

Eight of the 15 councilmembers must agree to put the bond before voters by August, the cutoff for the November ballot. Two-thirds of voters must then approve the measure.

The Cardenas-Smith proposal calls for $1.5 billion in bonds to be sold to finance the repaving of at least 4,000 miles of city streets considered badly in need of repair. That’s about 60 percent of the city’s 6,500 miles of roads. Without this bond, Smith said, it would take roughly 80 years to repair all the damaged streets.

“I want to see our streets repaired in my lifetime,” said Cardenas. “At the city’s current pace I will be 123 years old before all the streets have been fixed. Some of our streets are worse than those in third world countries.”

Smith first publicly proposed a street repaving bond of at least $1 billion a year ago after record rains led to the formation of tens of thousands of potholes throughout the city. But talk of a statewide infrastructure bond measure prompted him to wait before proceeding. When negotiations over that bond failed in March, Smith and Cardenas went ahead with planning for the city’s own bond.