General
The City’s pavement management program utilizes various treatments, such as crack seals, slurry seals, cape seals, overlays, and major roadway reconstruction. With 128 centerline miles of streets and a replacement value in excess of $439 million (as of January 2023), pavement treatments and candidate streets are carefully selected to maximize the return on our investment.
Process
Alameda’s pavement management program has three general zones: West End (western limits to Grand Street), East End (Grand Street to High Street), and Bay Farm (High Street to the eastern limits). Staff focuses on selecting candidate streets and appropriate pavement treatments from a specific zone each year and cycles to the next zone the following year.
Streets are strategically chosen to:
- slow down deterioration of streets in good condition,
- serve the most users (motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians), and
- rehabilitate the worst streets.
The City’s Public Works Department surveys every public street every 3 years to determine the pavement condition index (PCI) for each street and the overall street network. The PCI helps us understand the conditions of our streets, which allows us to determine the costs to maintain or improve the pavement network. The cost to maintain the current PCI is $6 million a year. The City’s annual paving budget is $4 million per year.
Streets selected for underground utility improvements (AMP, PG&E, EBMUD, telecom, sewer, etc.) are excluded from being selected for pavement treatment. This is done to prevent the damage of new pavement, and to allow restoration of any street cuts, trenching, and post construction pipeline inspection.
Streets expected to have development or other public works improvement projects are also excluded from being selected for pavement treatment due to modifications that would damage the new treatment. Further, these projects may actually include pavement treatments and it would be unnecessary to apply (and pay for) the same treatment twice.
The City prioritizes street selection by preserving and extending the life of streets in good or fair condition. By utilizing pavement maintenance treatments such as crack seal, slurry seals, and cape seals, the City prevents significant degradation of the pavement, thus avoiding more costly treatments. The unit cost of pavement maintenance is 15 times less compared to pavement rehabilitation, which involves the removal and replacement of the top asphalt layer.
Streets in poor condition or with the lowest PCI scores are also considered for pavement rehabilitation or reconstruction.
The City then takes these potential project streets and prioritizes streets that:
- are used by the most motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians;
- are school routes or have current or future bike facilities (e.g. bike lanes or routes);
- are transit routes;
- have higher network and neighborhood connectivity.
The City also applies budgetary and project management strategies. For example, the City creates a more efficient project at a lower cost, by grouping treatments in the same neighborhood together. This reduces the mobilization of staff and construction equipment to isolated areas.
Note, work will not be performed on every street within a given zone. Due to budgetary constraints and to maintain project efficiency, some streets will need to be considered for future projects.
Other Improvements
Work within the public right-of-way may also include repair of underlying material, adjustments to concrete as needed to improve drainage (e.g. curbs, gutters, driveway aprons, cross culverts) and facilitate ADA access (e.g. accessible curb ramps, sidewalk), installation of green infrastructure to meet regulatory requirements of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board Quality Control Board’s Municipal Regional Stormwater Permit (MRP 3), and replacing or improving pavement markings and striping. This project will protect and maintain the City’s street surfaces, improve stormwater surface drainage, and improve mobility and safety for all users.
Repairs and upgrades will be made in accordance with the City’s Mobility Element of the General Plan, Strategic Plan, ADA Transition Plan, Active Transportation Plan, Complete Streets Policy, Policy on Street Width, Lane Width, Crosswalks, and Bulbs-outs, and Policy for Improvements to Visibility (Daylighting).