Street Maintenance
The City of Ventura Public Works Department maintains 650 lane miles of streets and alleys, 2 million square feet of sidewalks, 350 miles of curbs and gutters, 15,000 road signs, and over 1 million linear feet of street markings. Although streets are built to last for 20 - 40 years, they begin to deteriorate from the moment they are constructed. Streets with a lot of traffic, particularly heavy truck traffic, deteriorate more rapidly than streets in residential neighborhoods.To maintain the overall condition of our City streets requires more money than the City receives from its share of gasoline taxes. Therefore, paving priorities need to be established to best utilize the available limited funding for the greatest long-term value.
Where
does the money come from?
The City receives about $2 million each year for street pavement maintenance
from gasoline taxes. At this level of maintenance, street conditions in
Ventura have slowly deteriorated over time. We project that to keep the
streets in good shape, we need approximately $4 million per year. Given
this situation, we try to use the available funding where it will have
the greatest long term value. Your dollars are best spent when we can
use low-cost slurry sealing or cape seals to delay the time when the street
will need a more costly overlay or reconstruction. Many residents ask
why we are doing work on a good street and ignoring bad ones. We are simply
utilizing available funding in the most cost effective manner for the
overall road system.
How much does it cost?
There are four types of pavement maintenance: routine patching, slurry
seal coating, overlay, and reconstruction. The type of maintenance method
used is determined by the pavement condition, drainage, traffic, economic
considerations, future maintenance needs,
as well as types of material and equipment available.
Comparing the cost of each method will help you appreciate why we try
to prolong the life of our streets and avoid reconstruction.
Routine patching: $1,000 - $5,000 per
lane mile. This includes filling potholes,
covering trenches dug for utility work, sealing cracks, and other miscellaneous
repairs to preserve the life of the pavement.
Slurry seal coating: $5,000 - $10,000 per lane mile.
A slurry seal coating is a very thin asphalt sand and oil emulsion (slurry)
that seals pavement and slows its rate of deterioration.
Cape Seal: $30,000 - $50,000 per lane mile.
Coarse layer of hot rubberized oil embedded rock chips with a slurry seal
on top of it.
Overlay: $100,000 - $200,000 per lane mile.
An overlay places a new layer of pavement
on top of the existing pavement and can extend
a street's life by approximately 15 - 20 years.
Reconstruction: $400,000 - $500,000
per lane mile. Reconstruction involves
removing the existing pavement and rebuilding
an entirely new pavement section.
How does the City decide
which streets to pave?
The City has a computerized Pavement Management System which assists us
in tracking and prioritizing the maintenance needs of all City streets.
The Pavement Management System is based upon the proven concept that it
is far less costly to proactively maintain streets rather than allow them
to deteriorate to the point of needing reconstruction.
All streets in the City are visually inspected for pavement condition based upon a number of factors including cracking, rutting and wear. The appropriate pavement repair method is then determined and a cost estimate for that repair method is calculated. This repair cost is factored into the traffic load carried by the street to determine a cost/benefit ration for the pavement repairs.
Major street maintenance is prioritized based upon the cost/benefit ranking produced by the Pavement Management System. This results in the most efficient use of available funding rather that relying on a simplistic "worst-first" method. All streets are therefore scheduled for repairs using an objective method of prioritization.
Pavement Management
The City has a Five Year Pavement Management Plan. Call (805) 652-4517
for more information.
Proposed Pavement Maintenance Plan 2008-2012
Improving Street Cleanliness (View
sweeping schedule and map here)
Ventura sweeps residential areas once every month. Arterial streets are
swept once or twice per week, and at night when street parking and traffic
are light.
You can learn your neighborhood's regular street sweeping schedule by calling 805/652-4521 or click here to view a sweeping schedule and map.
If you have questions or need more information, please call the following numbers:
Street maintenance: 652-4515
Pothole Hotline: 652-4590
Emergencies after hours: 339-4400