San Diego Street Repair, Funding, and Reforms

By Michael J. "Mike" Aguirre

There are many public outcries and complaints concerning the City of San Diego's management of its street repair backlog. The huge scope demands broad-scale rethinking of repair and maintenance of this vital community asset.

SUMMARY

There are many public outcries and complaints concerning the City of San Diego's management of its street repair backlog. The huge scope demands broad-scale rethinking of repair and maintenance of this vital community asset. This is not a new subject for the San Diego County Grand Jury. Reports from the 2005/2006 San Diego County Grand Jury and the 2006/2007 San Diego County Grand Jury recommended a number of vital improvements. Many of those recommendations have not been carried out.

A national transportation research group + (TRIP) + recently reported that San Diego streets are sub-standard for a major city since only 10% of San Diego's major streets are in good condition.

In November 2011 San Diego's own Street Assessment Study found that San Diego's streets are in worse shape than in 2007.

The 2011/2012 San Diego County Grand Jury (Grand Jury) concluded that further review was necessary. Street improvement as well as the entire street capital investment issue is addressed in detail in this report.

INTRODUCTION

The Grand Jury investigation sought answers to the following questions:

• What is the current status of the street conditions?
• How current funds are being spent?
• What are the bureaucratic hurdles?
• Who is in charge and accountable?
• How can costs be reduced?
• How can this key asset of the City be upgraded?

The Grand Jury's investigation completed the following reviews and interviews:

Reviewed:

• 2005/2006 San Diego County Grand Jury Report and City of San Diego's Responses "San Diego City Street Conditions"1
• 2006/2007 San Diego County Grand Jury Report and City of San Diego's Responses "San Diego City Streets"
• San Diego City Auditor Reports of October 26, 2009; Performance Audit of the City's Street Maintenance Functions and November 2010; City Needs to Improve Planning, Coordination, and Oversight to Effectively Manage Transportation Assets (OCA-11-009)
• Office of the Independent Budget Analyst (IBA) Reports; Deferred Capital of October 27, 2011 (IBA 11-63) and Deferred Capital Funding Options of February 6, 2012
• Videos of the San Diego City Budget and Finance Committee meetings, 11/2/11, 11/16/11, 11/25/11 and 2/29/2012
• Attendance at San Diego City Budget and Finance Committee meeting
• Numerous reports and proposals from operating departments of the City of San Diego and neighboring cities
• Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, January 2008
• Publications from the National Center for Pavement Preservation and the Asphalt Rubber Technology Service (ARTS)
• Websites of comparable cities including those in other states
• American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) report of 2009

According to data released by the national transportation research group + (TRIP), 50% of San Diego's major thoroughfares are in poor condition + more than twice the national average for large population areas. Road conditions in San Diego rank seventh worst among major cities in the United States. Reports prepared by the San Diego City Auditor and the Independent Budget Analyst (IBA) have also stated that San Diego's streets and roadways do not meet Overall Condition Indexes (OCI) that should be a minimum standard for America's Finest City.

OCI is widely used in transportation civil engineering, is a statistical measure, and requires a manual survey of the pavement. Manual survey is an on-location examination of paving conditions, whether visual or done by specially equipped measuring devices.

OCI surveying processes and calculation methods have been standardized for both roads and airport pavements. The OCI as reported by the San Diego City Street Assessment study completed in November 2011 found that San Diego city streets are now in worse condition than they were in 2007. The 2007 street assessment was visual and only 50% of the streets were analyzed. Data from the 2011 survey reveals that currently only 35% of City streets can profess a "good" condition, 40% are "fair" and 25% are "poor".

OCI benchmark standard is 75%. Some key neighboring cities in San Diego County achieve well above 79%. One even does an annual public opinion survey. There, during the past four years, over 84% of the respondents replied that they are totally satisfied with the condition of their streets.

For the past six years the annual expenditure on street repair has typically been less than $35 Million. Here is the year-by-year breakdown of total resurfacing dollars:  FY06 $3.4 Million  FY07 $18.3 Million  FY08 $23.9 Million  FY09 $21.2 Million  FY10 $62.4 Million  FY11 $26.4 Million

According to the IBA report of October 27, 2011 it would take $378 million funding to catch up OCI to 2007 levels. The updated street assessment study conducted in November 2011, and resulting OCI numbers, significantly increased the current catch up funding necessary to $478 million. This is a result of more accurate information, the impacts associated with the City's inadequate street resurfacing program, and City streets degrading since the last condition assessment.

The City of San Diego is using rubberized asphalt on a 100% of their streets. Benefits of this technology are:

• Reduces reflective cracking in asphalt overlays
• Reduces maintenance costs
• Improves resistance to cracking in new pavements
• Increases pavement life
• Improves skid resistance
• Decreases noise levels
• Beneficially uses 500-2,000 scrap tires per lane mile.

Further, the 2009 AASHTO report shows that even though trends have leveled off due to the economic downturn, dollar for dollar street maintenance costs rose 60% between 1993 and 2007. This cost is expected to increase an additional 20% through 2015. According to this trend, the City should have spent approximately twice the amount in 2010 than in 2001 ($16.4 million) to provide the same level of service. This is why it is important to perform maintenance and capital improvements in an opportune manner.

The City's IBA report on deferred capital project and maintenance spending made to the Budget and Finance Committee on February 29, 2012 targets $26.6 million per year for operations and maintenance of streets. They also recommended using approximately $8 million of the projected surplus in the Mayor's Mid-Year Budget Report, which would increase the streets budget to $34.1. IBA feels this is the more appropriate approach to the deferred capital funding options.

Citizens want to know the status of repairs to their streets. The Grand Jury found that many other cities provide access to repair information. Some even provide a quarterly newsletter of their street repair schedule. The City of San Diego Street's Division website link should include a report with the updated five year plan for street maintenance and street capital improvement.

Due to requests from some council members, City staff has been forced to consider a minimal sustaining service level for street work. Such a "status quo" option of limited effort will only perpetuate today's problems. San Diego City streets have been neglected for so many years that both the Mayor and City Council must focus on improving this community asset. A formal commitment to upgrade this asset is in order. This will save the citizens of San Diego money in the long run and change the image of Americas Finest City.