With Over 40% of Streets In "Poor" Condition, City Council To Weigh Costs of Short-Term Maintenance Or Long-Term Improvements Costing Millions More

It's a timeless lesson learned repeatedly with cars and homes over and over again: regular maintenance and preventive care is always preferable to having to pay for repairs, which cost more in the long run. But if there's no money available for that maintenance and preventive care, neither choice is good for the pocketbook.

Such is the case with the choices that will be faced by the Half Moon Bay City Council tonight when it meets to discuss its available options for the repair, maintenance, and improvement of its 28 miles of city streets.

A Pavement Management Budget Options report (to view a copy of the report, click on PDF document in media box to right) completed last month by Capital Asset and Pavement Services, Inc. (funded by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission at no cost to the city) assessed that although the overall rating of its system as a whole fell within the "fair" range (a score of 55 points out of a 100-point Pavement Condition Index scale), approximately 43% of its streets were in "poor" or "very poor" condition,  about 39% of the streets were in "good" condition, and about 18% were in "fair" condition.

Based on these results, along with an estimated cost of between $25-$150/sq. yd to pay for preventive maintenance on city streets in "poor" condition in San Mateo County (compared to a cost of $3/sq. yd for streets in "good" condition),  city engineer Mo Sharma has laid out a few budget scenarios for the council to consider this evening based on those described in the report.

Sharma's scenarios are as follows:

• Spend $19.8 million over the course of five years ($11.5 million the first year to improve the overall city streets' condition to "good."
• Spend $650,000 over the next five years to maintain the current condition of "fair." Though this option reduces short-term costs significantly, Sharma also writes that in this scenario, the backlog of streets needing to be repaired (because of deferred maintenance) would be increased to $17.4 million.
• Spend $1 million a year over the next five years and increase its overall condition marginally (and accrue a deferred maintenance backlog of $16.9 million).
• Make no changes to its annual disbursement of $30,000 a year for street maintenance over the next five years, which is projected to lower the overall condition of the streets (the percentage of streets in the "very poor" condition projected to increase from 21.5% to 36% from 2011 to 2015), as well as nearly double the deferred maintenance backlog from $11.5 million in 2011 to $20.1 in 2015.

The city's Pavement Condition Index (PCI) Score of 55 (which reflects the average of all city streets) has declined from where it was just a few years ago, with an average score of 61 in 2007. Compared to the rest of the Bay Area, which had an average PCI index score of 66 in 2009 -- and assuming that the PCI score would not increase from 2007 to 2009 given the city's level of investment -- Half Moon Bay is below par when measured against its regional counterparts in this area.

The report recommends that the city invest the $19.8 million over the next five years to improve the overall quality of streets, but acknowledges that it is unrealistic for it to put $11.5 million towards the maintenance and repair in the first year.

Given the city's limitation, the report advises that the city use this option as a baseline to compare other options against.

The city will also discuss strategies to generate revenue for a more robust pavement management program, which could involve implementing a local fee for street maintenance and repair. 

Another strategy the city plants to discuss to maintain their streets is to coordinate "major" street repairs with utility maintenance schedules.

A public comment session will start the meeting and precede the council's review of the Pavement Management Budget Options Report.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. tonight at the at Shoreline Station.