Council Approves New Methods for Roadway Repair and Maintenance
Dec 21, 2023 09:19AM ● By Shaunna BoydCITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - At the final meeting of the
year on December 14, the Citrus Heights City Council unanimously selected a new
mayor and vice mayor to serve in the upcoming year: Mayor Bret Daniels and Vice
Mayor Jayna Karpinski-Costa.
Mayor Daniels said he will be honored to serve as mayor and commended outgoing mayor Tim Schaefer for his service over the past year. Daniels said public safety will be a top priority for him and that there is “a lot of work ahead.” He also revealed that he plans for this to be his last year on the Council (as he is running for election to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors in District 4).
Before approval of the Consent Calendar, Robert Coronado made a video appearance to speak on Item 11 – his offer to give the City 2.2 acres of vacant land (next to Heights Church) to use for a park, open space, or community garden.
Mr. Coronado said, “I’d be happy to donate the property located on Sylvan Rd. to the City of Citrus Heights to be used for the public’s benefit in perpetuity. Thank you for agreeing, if accepted, to name the property Coronado Park in honor of my grandparents, Manuel and Francisca Coronado, who emigrated from Mexico in the 1920s and homesteaded part of the property.”
San Juan Creek runs through the site, and there is a grove of well-established oak trees. “The property ties in well with the City’s General Plan goal of preserving and protecting open space, which in turn helps reduce the effects of climate change, as outlined in the UN’s climate change report,” said Coronado.
Councilmember Schaefer said Mr. Coronado reached out about a year ago to suggest the land transfer. “This man is pretty amazing,” said Schaefer. “I’m very excited to have this property preserved for generations to come.”
Mayor Daniels said, “Your graciousness to us is extremely appreciated.” The Council unanimously approved the Consent Calendar, including the land transfer.
City Engineer Leslie Blomquist presented the plans for Phase 1A of the San Juan Avenue Complete Streets Project, which includes improvements such as buffered bike lanes, new sidewalks, street lighting, storm drain upgrades, roadway resurfacing, and upgrades to transit stops and traffic signals. Phase 1A will extend along San Juan Ave., from Madison Ave. to Chesline Dr. (After design and funding are secured, the work will extend to Spicer Dr. in Phase 1B and to Greenback Ln. in Phase 2.)
Staff recommended approval of a construction contract with All Phase Construction at $2.79 million, as well as an agreement with Ghirardelli Associates for construction management and inspection services at $501,491. The total estimated cost for Phase 1A is $3.66 million, which includes the construction and management services, in addition to 15% for contingencies.
The majority of the project funding is $2.9 million in grants from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), and other grants, local funds, and reimbursements from utility companies for their portion of the work.
In the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 Capital Improvement Project (CIP) budget, the City Council already allocated $4.5 million for this project, so there will be budget savings of over $800,000 that can used to supplement other CIP projects.
Mayor Daniels said this project is “sorely needed.” The contracts for Phase 1A were unanimously approved by Council.
General Services Director Regina Cave presented Council with a Three-Year Pavement Preservation Plan for arterial, collector, and residential streets in the city. Many streets in Citrus Heights are in poor condition, but the costs of traditional resurfacing and paving have made it difficult for the City to address the issue. With limited funding available for roads, only a few can be improved each year, leaving many more to fall further into disrepair – which as Director Cave explained, ends up costing the City more in the long run. And the City has traditionally focused on the worst roads first, which also increased the overall cost since crews had to be mobilized to different locations throughout the City at different times.
Staff began looking at other options and found there are more cost-effective methods being implemented by other cities in the region. Roads can be improved and maintained by using a variety of sealing applications (such as crack seal, slurry seal, and multi-layer treatments) at a fraction of the price – from $4–$10 per square yard, versus $45 per square yard with traditional pavement overlays. The sealing applications can also be completed much more quickly than repaving. Cave explained that the plan is to maximize both time and funding by having crews work on various roads in the same area, with the worst ones getting more intensive repair seals, and those in better shape getting a seal to maintain its condition.
While traditional repaving does last the longest (up to 20 years), it still requires maintenance during that time. But the proposed sealing methods can last up to 10 years, so even with more frequent applications, there would still be significant cost savings—into the millions over the life of the roadways. And this new plan will increase the City’s annual road repair output from 1-2 centerline miles to more than 52 centerline miles. With the funding for road repairs that is already included in the approved budget for the next few years, the City could afford to repair up to 117 streets with the proposed plan—rather than repairing only 6–20 streets during that time with the traditional method.
The recommended three-year plan includes arterial roads (parts of Antelope Rd., Auburn Blvd., Dewey Dr., Van Maren Ln., Fair Oaks Blvd., Greenback Ln., Madison Ave., Sylvan Rd., San Juan Ave.) as well as high-traffic neighborhood collector streets (such as Tuplo Dr., Rollingwood Blvd., and Kingswood Dr.).
Vice Mayor Karpinski-Costa said that while she’s in favor of the concept, she does not support the streets identified for the initial round of work, since she believes some of them have been paved more recently and are currently in good condition.
Director Cave said, “Again, as I stated, there are going to be streets on here that are still in good condition. The idea is to be able to maintain them in good condition, and we’re maintaining them at a fraction of the price with the slurry seal, versus waiting until they degrade.”
Karpinski-Costa insisted that it would be best to focus repairs only on those roads that have not been paved for many years, and to exclude any roads in good condition.
Cave explained that Citrus Heights has 1,000 public streets: “We can’t achieve all of our streets all in one fell swoop.” And mobilizing crews in a strategic geographic approach will result in more cost savings than focusing only on the worst roads, which had been the historical approach.
Mayor Daniels said he likes the geographic approach because “it just makes logical sense.” Rather than the historical “hodge-podge approach,” working in one area at a time to get all those streets fixed or maintained will “get us to a point where everything is going to look pretty darn good. And then it’s just going to be about maintaining it.”
To Karpinski-Costa’s point, Daniels said, “It’s not about which street has been paved before or not.” There could be streets in more need of work, regardless of when they were last paved, and the roads in good condition need to be maintained rather than neglected to protect the City’s financial investment. “We’ve got to trust Regina and her team…to pick those streets that are right.”
Council voted 4-1 to approve the Three-year Pavement Preservation Plan, with Vice Mayor Karpinski-Costa dissenting.
City Manager Ashley Feeney recognized Director Cave for the tremendous amount of work put into the pavement preservation plan. “This is a direct outgrowth of the Focus Area Work Plan and the Strategic Objectives that the Council adopted. So many more lane miles are addressed with this plan than the model of old. I’m really excited about it,” said Feeney. “It’s going to be a fantastic endeavor.”
The next Citrus Heights City Council meeting is scheduled for January 11, 2024.