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If you have seen more roadwork around Pleasanton this spring, which might have led to increased traffic, that’s because the city is currently working on several major roadway construction projects as part of its 2024 Pavement Management Program.
The program started in April with several curb, sidewalk and other replacement projects along Hopyard Road and will continue to make more improvements in other locations until October, which means residents should be prepared to see more traffic throughout the summer.
According to the city’s Public Works Department website, generally and without maintenance new street surfaces deteriorate in 18 years and only get worse, if left untreated.
“As the street ages, the rate of deterioration speeds up,” according to the city.
That’s why the city’s Pavement Management Program aims to “maintain city streets and keep them in good driving condition.”
Each year, the city manages two street resurfacing projects: a street resurfacing project and a slurry sealing project, communications manager Heather Tiernan told the Weekly. Both projects are part of the city’s overall pavement management program.
“The annual street resurfacing project includes the repaving of streets with a new layer of hot mix asphalt. This project also includes pothole repairs and surface crack sealing,” Tiernan said. “In contrast, the annual slurry sealing project applies a thin seal coat to the road surface (made up of) of liquid asphalt and sand.”
While the city was able to carry out some of the slurry sealing projects — they are usually less expensive — last year’s street resurfacing project was postponed because of high contractor prices that were caused by a local shortage of asphalt.
This caused a backlog of pavement improvement projects that the city had to push to this year. However, the city still had to choose which streets need immediate, quick fixes that come from slurry seals and which ones need a complete resurfacing.
“A lot of thought and effort is used to determine how to best spend the limited funds available for street work as there is simply not enough funding to keep every street in a like-new condition,” according to the Public Works Department.
Every two years, all of Pleasanton’s 518 lane miles of paved roads are inspected and assigned a numerical rating between zero and 100 under what is known as the pavement condition index (PCI).
A PCI rating of 100 means the street was newly paved, anything above 75 is considered to be in good condition and streets above 50 on the PCI are considered fair. Streets marked above 25 on the PCI are labeled as poor and anything below 25 is considered to be in very poor or in failing condition, according to the Public Works Department.
Pleasanton’s streets were last inspected in December 2023.
According to Tiernan, the city uses a software developed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission called Street Saver, which relies on the PCI ratings, to prioritize road surface maintenance.
Tiernan said streets with a PCI rating of or under 60 are generally considered to be candidates for the annual street resurfacing project and for this year’s pavement management program, the streets that fit within this category are on Hopyard Road between Valley Avenue to Gibraltar Drive and Dorman Road between West Las Positas Boulevard and Denker Drive.
Construction for those resurfacing projects along Hopyard and Dorman Road are set to begin in June while other resurfacing projects along Bernal Avenue and a couple other streets are estimated to begin in May.
Other projects to seal cracks and do slurry seals; replace curbs and sidewalks; and fix the city’s water system are all also set to take place in the following months ahead.
According to the city, almost two million square feet of streets will be treated this year thanks to the program.
Tiernan said Pleasanton uses a variety of revenue sources to fund both the street resurfacing and slurry sealing projects. She said the State of California Gas Tax is the largest contributor followed by Alameda County Sales Tax Measures B and BB, Measure F and California Senate Bill 1.
In total, Tiernan said the 2024 annual street resurfacing project includes a total allocated budget of almost $7.6 million while the 2024 annual slurry sealing project includes a total budget of almost $548,000. Combined, the city’s investment in road maintenance this year will be close to $8.11 million.
While many residents might want the city to address the worst streets first, the city has stated that approach isn’t the most feasible one.
“Under that approach, all available funding would go to repairing the worst streets and not much else,” according to the city. “More importantly, many streets currently in good or fair condition would deteriorate without maintenance, and the overall condition of the street system would diminish.”
