Generally, proactive street maintenance work is of a larger scale and is accomplished through CIP's and construction contracts.  Examples of proactive street maintenance activities include surface treatments (may extend street life by 7 years) and resurfacing and pavement overlays (may extend street life by up to 15 years).  Failure to complete proactive street maintenance will lead to the accelerated deterioration of City streets, thereby, costing more to repair in the long-term.

 

On the other hand, street repairs that are undertaken as a matter of urgency for safety reasons, or as part of the City's daily operations because they are too small to outsource, are considered reactive street maintenance work.  Examples of these activities, which are performed by Street Maintenance crews, include pothole repair, minor street reconstruction, major street reconstruction (less than 550 square feet), curb line asphalt repairs, lateral cut resurfacing, and skin patching/capping.

 

The Public Works Department is working to identify street related problem areas throughout the city.  Once these areas have been identified citywide, staff will be able to better assess which areas require CIP projects for improvement, in priority order, based on the overall maintenance needs of the city and funding available.  Since the Pavement Management System's goal is to keep good streets from deteriorating, implementation of its recommendations should reduce the need for pothole repair and patching in the future.