San Diegans in Otay Mesa-Nestor, Navajo, and Serra Mesa can look forward to smoother drives as the City's road maintenance program kicks into high gear with several street resurfacing projects underway. As reported, the City of San Diego is using slurry seal technology to enhance the longevity of its streets by preventing their deterioration, which represents a critical component in the overall plan to improve road conditions citywide. Slurry seal work began this week and will continue through June, weather permitting, tackling streets such as Athey Avenue, Smythe Avenue, and Glacier Avenue among others in a phased approach.
The slurry seal serves the purpose of extending the service life of city roads that are in acceptable condition by an application that averages out at a quarter-inch thick, comprising a blend of asphalt emulsion, sand, and rock. The City has included cape seal and scrub seal methods, which similarly address cracks and protect against water damage, ensuring the foundations laid today stand against the test of tomorrow, and the City’s Transportation Department has its hands full with several ongoing projects employing these techniques.
In selecting roads for resurfacing, the City employs a pavement management system assigning each road a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) that reflects the existing state of roughness and cracks, with higher PCIs indicating better conditions. Decisions on prioritizing road resurfacing factors in metrics beyond the PCI: they consider traffic volume, road type, equity and accessibility consideration, climate resilience, movement patterns, and past maintenance logs as well as liaison with other projects, such as pipeline replacement, to optimize the timing and effectiveness of the roadwork.
