The City of San Diego has officially laid a roadmap for its future, which aims to repair and maintain its weathered streets. After meticulously analyzing every paved street segment in San Diego, city officials have a plan, and they're ready to pitch it to the City Council. The city's Transportation Department staff are slated to present a five-year Pavement Management Plan today, pinpointing the specific streets in dire need of repair, reported the official website of San Diego.
Coupled with the interactive StreetsSD webpage, the citizens of San Diego can conveniently view upcoming paving projects in their neighborhoods and look up information about individual streets. "This crucial data gives us what we need to make informed strategic investments in our roads and the long-term plan on how to do that," Mayor Todd Gloria ambitiously aspired, according to the official San Diego government publication. The plan pinpoints a distressing trend: San Diego's roads have suffered from years of insufficient funding and substantial neglect.
Back in January, San Diego's Pavement Condition Index (PCI), a measuring tape for street health, scored a rather lackluster 63 out of 100, placing the city's road network in the "Fair" category. The industry aims for a score of at least 70, confirming that San Diego has some catching up. With more than 6,600 lane miles under its purview, the city boasts the second-largest street network in California.
For the fiscal year 2024, the Mayor committed a record $140 million to fixing the streets which, in 2023, allowed for the repair of 254 miles of roadway and filling over 61,300 potholes – a sharp 94% increase from the previous year. Although this effort demonstrates progress, Bethany Bezak, Transportation Department Director, noted the hard truth that significant, dedicated funding is needed to prevent further road degradation and to achieve the standard San Diegans expect from the 8th largest city in the United States. "Having this condition assessment data is crucial for our operations so that our team can be more strategic and cost-effective in allocating limited resources for road repair and maintenance," she shared in a statement featured on the city's website.
A recent Independent Budget Analyst (IBA) report acknowledges the pragmatic nature of the Pavement Management Plan. It also explored the cost-effectiveness of expanding in-house repair crews rather than relying solely on contracted labor, suggesting the city to mull over not just the additional staff, but also a new facility to house these crews for efficient use of resources, reported the City of San Diego's website.
San Diego residents eager to learn more about the condition of their roads and the details of the Pavement Management Plan can find the full report on the City’s website.
