Belmont unveils plan to repair roads

“Just because a road isn’t mentioned in five-year plan doesn’t mean it won’t get done. This is just the first big bite of a very large apple,” Councilman Charles Stone said, according to a video of the meeting.

The plan entails $10.5 million over five years, or $2.1 million per year for street and road improvements. Measure I will bring in $1 million per year, the Senate Bill 1 gas tax will contribute $600,000 to $700,000 per year and an additional $2 million in infrastructure funds has been allocated by the council for the five-year period.

The goal is for Belmont’s streets by 2023 to reach a rank of 61 on the pavement condition index, which is a system between zero and 100 of assessing road conditions. Public Works Director Afshin Oskoui said current identified funding for roads should bring Belmont into the mid 60s on the index in 15 years.

According to the index, 70 and above is considered “good,” 69-60 is “fair,” 59-50 means “at-risk” and a rank below 50 is considered “poor” or “failed.”

Sixty-seven percent of Belmont roads are in “good” to “at risk” condition and 31 percent are in “poor” to “failed” condition for an average ranking of 59 on the index, up from 56 in 2014.

Pavement in the 50-59 range is “deteriorated” and requires “immediate attention,” while pavement at the lower end of the 60-69 range is “significantly distressed and may require a combination of rehabilitation and preventative maintenance,” according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s website.

Based on the latest analysis, the city would need to spend $14.5 million per year in maintenance and rehabilitation over the next five years to repair all streets, or achieve a PCI rating of 82, according to a staff report.

Joe Ririe, senior principal engineer with Pavement Engineering, outlined a number of reasons for the city’s PCI increase between 2014 and today, including changes in the ranking methodology. But he also attributed some of that progress to the city’s street maintenance crew over the past two years, adding that they’ve filled 460 potholes this year.

Oskoui said the list of streets on deck for repairs will regularly be added onto and most of them will be improved over the 30 years of Measure I funding.

In 2019, the largest road repair investments will be made to stretches of Carlmont Drive, Continentals Way, Coronet Boulevard and Ruth Avenue.

Mayor Doug Kim said about a third of the road repair budget in the five-year plan will be spent on reconstructing streets in the worst condition.

“Two thirds of the funding over the next five years is going to those streets that we normally couldn’t get to during normal triage and I think that’s a really good message that the voters have sent to themselves, which is we need to look at all streets,” Kim said.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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