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What is the condition of Redwood City's roadways?
Redwood City has approximately 149 miles of improved streets,
and about six miles of unimproved* roadways.
The City's Engineering and Construction division is responsible
for planning, designing, and building our roads. Day-to-day maintenance
of the streets is the responsibility of the City's Public Works
Services department. All of these elements are handled through
the City's Roadway Management Program.
The City uses what's known as a Pavement Condition Index (PCI)
to measure the condition of its roads. The Pavement Management
System and PCI concept were developed by the Metropolitan Transportation
Commission, and are in common use throughout the Bay Area. Elements
contributing to a road's PCI include cracking, furrowing or rutting,
potholes, and general weathering.
City streets are surveyed by staff and the PCI is updated approximately
every five years. Of course City staff monitors the streets throughout
the year to keep an eye on problem areas and conditions that
might have changed since the last PCI process. This combination
of periodic surveys and actual inspections is an effective way
of anticipating maintenance work that will have to be performed.
When all streets are assessed, the data is entered into a computer
program and a list of the streets and their recommended treatments
is generated, based on each street's PCI. This information helps
develop a maintenance work plan, and also contributes to budget
decisions.
As seen above, approximately 67% of Redwood City's roads are
considered to be in 'very good' condition. 18% are in 'good'
condition, 12% in 'poor,' and 4% in 'very poor' condition.
| Here is an example of a Redwood
City street with a PCI of 100. |
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| At the opposite end of the spectrum
is a street with a PCI of 14. |
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| The average PCI for improved roadways within
Redwood City is 72, which means that based on this index,
the streets are in very good condition, on average. Here
is an example of a Redwood City street with a PCI of
70, which can be viewed as typical for the streets of
Redwood City. |
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Why we need to maintain and repair roads sooner,
rather than later.
Asphalt road surface has a lifetime of approximately 20 years.
Without maintenance, in the first 15 years the road quality can
drop by 40%. After this point, the rate of deterioration dramatically
increases, so that in just the next three years (years 16 - 19),
the quality will drop another 40%, after which the road will
fail completely and require complete reconstruction.
If the road fails, it must be entirely reconstructed at a whopping
$40 per square yard, a full 20 times the cost of repairing that
road earlier in its lifetime. Clearly, it's more cost-effective,
and better for the driving public, to monitor roads and do repairs
more frequently in the first 15 years than it is to defer maintenance
to a later date and incur much higher costs.
Periodically, some of the 'poor' and 'very poor' streets are
entirely reconstructed. Because of the high cost of reconstruction,
less than one percent of City streets get this level of treatment.
The next time you experience some inconvenience and perhaps
feel a little frustrated that City road crews are working in
your neighborhood, remember that the City is trying to make the
best use of roadway management funds, while providing you with
the highest quality of streets possible.
If you'd like information on Redwood City road projects, engineering
standards, or current construction, please go to the Redwood
City Engineering and
Construction page.
* Unimproved roadways
are those built while under County jurisdiction and which do
not meet current or past City standards. The current pavement
management program addresses certain asphalt and surface maintenance
issues, but precludes major improvements to these roads. A City
Council Task Force is developing a process to address the unimproved
roadways. This process will be brought before the City Council
at a later time.
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