San Leandro's Streets in Poor Shape, Says New Report

If you feel like you’re off-roading while driving down some of San Leandro’s streets, it’s probably not just your suspension (though you might want to have that checked, too). The city’s roads are getting steadily worse.

San Leandro’s streets and roads rank just slightly above Oakland as the second worst in Alameda County, according to the 2011 Pothole Report, released Wednesday by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which coordinates transportation and planning for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

The MTC ranks the overall pavement conditions of streets and roads on a scale of one to 100, giving each jurisdiction a “pavement condition index” or PCI. San Leandro has a PCI of 57, according to the MTC report, compared to an average index of 66 for the Bay Area.

“We’re on a sliding down trajectory,” city engineer Ken Joseph said of San Leandro’s roadways. The city’s pavement conditions have declined steadily over the past decade, as the cost of maintenance and repairs are more than the city can afford.

The latest PCI score puts San Leandro roads in the “at-risk” category (the regional average pavement condition is considered “fair”). The city shares that less-than-esteemed designation with about one-third of Bay Area jurisdictions — 14 in all — including Millbrae, Martinez, Napa, Richmond, Petaluma and Oakland (click on the image at right to read the full report).

But the index doesn’t give the full story. Conditions vary greatly depending on the type of street and the daily traffic volume. Arterial streets, such as Washington Avenue and San Leandro Boulevard, offer smoother rides than residential streets. Arterials have an estimated PCI of 63 compared to 49 for residential streets, according to Joseph.

That’s because it’s easier to get state and federal funding to maintain major roadways than it is to fix up less trafficked residential streets, Joseph explained, even though the latter make up nearly three-fifths of the city’s roadways.

“You can use certain money on certain places,” he said.

Where’s the Money?

The majority of San Leandro’s funds for road maintenance and repair come from the Measure B quarter-cent sales tax, which was passed by Alameda County voters in November, 2000. Other funding comes from the state gas tax and state and federal grants.

Currently, the city is not allocating general fund dollars to road repairs,  and not much has come from city coffers historically, Johnson said.

Funding sources for road maintenance have declined in the Bay Area in general, according to the MTC. Reasons include declining sales tax receipts since 2007 and the loss of purchasing power due to inflation.

The gas tax loses 3 percent, on average, of its purchasing power each year due to inflation, according to the MTC, and the price of pavement has nearly tripled in the past 15 years.

San Leandro will spend about $2 million for road maintenance and repairs for the coming fiscal year. That’s only one-third the amount Johnson says is needed just to maintain the city’s street conditions.

Other cities and counties around the Bay face similar scenarios. The MTC’s goal, laid out in its Transportation 2035 Plan, is to boost the area’s pavement condition index to 75 from the current 66 by 2035. Meeting that goal will require a $25 billion combined investment — almost three times the amount currently spent on road maintenance in the Bay Area, according to the MTC report.

The Costs Will Keep Going Up

Just as preventing health problems is less expensive than curing disease, the same is true for streets: steady maintenance is cheaper than emergency repairs.

“A municipality that spends $1 on timely maintenance to keep a section of roadway in good condition would have to spend $5 to restore the same road if the pavement is allowed to deteriorate to the point where major rehabilitation is necessary,” the Pothole Report authors state.

Steady maintenance is also good for the planet. The MTC notes that routine, relatively inexpensive maintenance helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions because it requires less asphalt and fewer trips by heavy trucks than major repair projects.

Plus, smooth roads are safer for cyclists, and improve the fuel economy of cars, the MTC notes. Drivers in the San Francisco-Oakland area pay an extra $706 in vehicle operating costs each year because of bad roads, according to a 2010 report cited by the MTC.

The Pothole Gods

Each year, the city’s Engineering and Transportation and Public Works departments convene to determine which of the city’s lucky streets will get a makeover. They rely on a computer modeling system, maintenance reports and field inspections to come up with a list of ailing roadways that is “very much longer than the money” they have to spend on them, Johnson said.

So they whittle down the list, leaving many cracking roads to wait out another year.

Although San Leandro roads may be poor compared to other parts of Alameda County, they’re much better, according to the MTC’s pavement condition index, than, say Rio Vista. That town on the Sacramento River Delta has a PCI index of 42, the worst in the nine-county Bay Area region. 

Even the relatively wealthy East Bay town of Orinda has the fifth lowest PCI index in the Bay Area. On the flip side, the highest street ranking went to Brentwood, in Contra Costa County.

San Leandro’s relatively low ranking compared to other Bay Area jurisdictions is, at least in part, a reflection of the city’s lack of space for expansion. Newer cities, and growing cities, have an advantage under the pavement index system because new streets bump up their average.

If that’s no consolation, it may be time to purchase a seat cushion.