City of Willows Pavement Management Program Road Maintenance Needs March 25, 2014

Willows’ Paved Streets are a Valuable Asset The City of Willows maintains nearly 31 centerline miles of paved public streets. Total replacement value of this asset is approximately $36.1 million. To preserve this important asset it is essential to properly maintain the roads each year to minimize much larger costs in the future if they are not maintained properly.

Pavement Deterioration Over Time Pavements deteriorate at a relatively slow rate over the first 75% of their useful life. Pavements deteriorate at a relatively fast rate after hitting 75%of their useful life.

Timing of Treatment is Key The cost of applying preventative pavement maintenance during the first 75% of their useful life is generally one- tenth to one-fifth of the cost of waiting until the roads have completely failed and need complete reconstruction.

Managing Pavement Properly In the absence of a plan for maintenance, cities can fall into the “worst first” trap. This can prove to be expensive and may not be the most cost effective approach. One of the best and most common ways for cities to develop a plan to maintain their roads is to develop a pavement management plan (PMP.) This program determines the most cost effective way for the City to spend maintenance monies.

Pavement Management Philosophy PMP’s evaluate all streets and determine which streets are still within the zone of 75% of their useful lives and the best treatments to preserve the streets to avoid more costly reconstruction needs in the future. Pavement Management Programs involve visual inspections of all streets on 7 different categories. Visual ratings are input into PMP software and Pavement Condition Indexes (PCI’s) are determined for each street.

Pavement Condition Index

Condition of Willows’s Streets This year, the City just completed the first update to the City’s PMP since Based on field surveys, the current average City- wide PCI is % of the City’s streets have a PCI of 70 or above (considered very good.) 28% of City’s streets have a PCI of (considered good.) 29% of the City’s streets have a PCI of or below (considered poor.) 14% of the City’s streets have a PCI of 24 or below (considered very poor.)

Pavement Condition Index 2014

Types of Pavement Treatments Depending on the condition of the street, several typical treatments are used for maintaining streets. These include: Crack SealingSlurry Sealing Chip SealingCape Sealing Asphalt OverlayIn-place asphalt recycling Full depth asphaltRoad Reconstruction A PMP will typically recommend one of these treatments, depending on the condition of the street and what is needed to bring the street back to like-new condition.

Road Maintenance Plan Five budget scenarios were considered: Maintaining the current condition of streets over the 5 years from (a PCI of 54) Increase the PCI by 5 points over 5 yrs. Unconstrained budget (if money were no object what would it take to bring all streets up to at least a PCI of 80 in 5 yrs.) Do nothing Annual Expenditures of $140,000

Budget Comparison

What Does All This Mean Gives the City Council a good idea of the condition of the streets and what may be needed to adequately maintain them. If $140,000 is spent annually on City streets over the next 5 years, the average condition of the City’s streets will degrade from “good” to “poor.” Cost effective maintenance strategies can be applied to obtain the biggest “bang for the buck” to ensure the assets in the City’s streets can be preserved. Results should be used to program street projects. Some streets will have approached the point where they may start to deteriorate more rapidly. Need to keep an eye on conditions.

Funding Options Typical funding used for street maintenance includes Gas Taxes; however the rate of gas taxes paid to agencies over the past several years has declined and failed to keep up with inflation. State and federal funding can be applied for, however there are limited sources and it is very competitive. Important to be aggressive as possible to look for alternative funding sources to supplement currently used funds.

Suggested Approach Begin implementing annual pavement rehabilitation projects to put funds to use in the smartest way possible. Base annual budget funding primarily from gas tax, however continually review/pursue state and federal funding sources for roads, bicycles and pedestrian improvements where some street improvements can be incorporated. Update PMP every 3-5 years to stay in compliance with state regulations and to keep track of pavement conditions.

Other Options Other options to consider: Spending higher amounts of money to get less streets treated by reconstructing some of the streets in the poorest condition. Balance of implementing some of the PMP recommended treatments with some road reconstruction. Future annual allocations Provide guidance to staff on the amount the Council would like to fund each year out of the gas tax money to keep up on street maintenance.