The City’s 5-year street maintenance program identifies streets, through an objective software program algorithm and consultant review, that achieve the most effective use of limited City funding to keep the City’s overall pavement condition at the highest level possible. The City uses the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC) pavement management program, StreetSaver, to develop the City’s 5-year street maintenance program. MTC requires Bay Area cities to have a pavement management program in place to manage their street network in order to be eligible for pavement grant funding. MTC developed the program in the late 1980’s after determining cities were not effectively using their pavement money to keep the overall pavement conditions as high as possible. This was because many cities used a costly “worst-first” approach to pavement management. This approach put the majority of pavement funding towards the worst pavements allowing many pavements in better condition to drop down into more expensive repair categories, instead of maintaining these streets with less expensive treatments earlier on to keep them in good condition. Pavement management systems are built on the premise of keeping good streets in good condition and preventing streets from dropping into more expensive repair categories, which allows a larger number of streets to be treated at a lower price. The October 12, 2020 pavement management Council report addresses a stopgap strategy to treat streets in the poorer condition categories.
MTC’s pavement grant funding is tied to the use of the StreetSaver software program because the program is objective and mathematical, using a scientifically developed algorithm that inputs the available pavement maintenance budget, existing pavement conditions and street classification (residential, collector, arterial) to develop the program. Once the program selects a list of streets, the City’s pavement consultant provides an engineering review on each street to verify the appropriate treatment is used. Additional elements of the review include review of streets dropping into more expensive repair categories, grouping streets for better contractor bid pricing and removal of streets with upcoming development and utility construction projects. The developed 5-year street maintenance program is the most cost effective way to use the available pavement maintenance funds to keep the City’s overall pavement condition at the highest level possible.
There are more streets that need repair in the City than there is available budget. With limited funding, the program is only able to select a limited number of streets. As more funding becomes available, the program would select a higher number of streets for treatment.