City of Palo Alto Street Maintenance Program

The City of Palo Alto’s 199 mile street network includes 131 miles of residential streets, 37 miles of collector streets and 31 miles of arterial streets. By 2010, Palo Alto’s average rating for streets was 73 and the Council appointed Infrastructure Blue Ribbon Commission (IBRC) determined that nearly 20% of Palo Alto’s streets were rated under 60. IBRC recommended that no Palo Alto streets have a PCI rating below 60 and City Council established a goal of achieving an average citywide PCI of 85 by 2021. Since 2009, Palo Alto’s PCI score has increased from 72 to 83 (December 2016) and we expect to reach a citywide average of 85 by 2019. Annual funding has increased from $1.7M to $6M for street maintenance since FY 2011 in an effort to accelerate the program. Palo Alto has been successful in leveraging grant, gas tax and vehicle registration funding to boost the increased street maintenance budget. Since FY 2011, over 40% of the increased budget is attributed to grant, gas tax and vehicle registration funds. The other 60% is local funding. Extensive coordination with the City’s Utility Department is used to develop a five-year plan for all work. This enables utility repairs and replacements to be completed prior to paving. Additionally the street maintenance program projects include repairing all sidewalk, curb and gutter, and curb ramps as needed when the street is repaved. This close coordination not only saves time and money but also reduces inconveniences to residents and businesses and avoids having new streets cut into. It also allows the city to focus on incorporating pedestrian and bicycle improvements. Staff from Public Works and Transportation Division closely coordinate installing new striping layouts and spot improvements including bulb-outs and traffic circles. In the last year, the street maintenance program has constructed over $600,000 in improvements toward implementing the 2012 Pedestrian/Bicycle Transportation Plan. Palo Alto strives to be a leader in green programs and includes the street maintenance program in its efforts. Since 2013, Palo Alto has completed three paving projects totaling 4.1 miles of rubberized asphalt concrete (RAC) paving along Alma Street and Middlefield Road, two of the busiest arterial streets in town. Another RAC project is planned for 2017 and 2018 (totaling 2.5 miles) to complete RAC paving of Middlefield Road and Alma Street. Palo Alto has also incorporated onsite storm water retention into some of its street maintenance projects. Palo Alto has been conducting outreach to its residents to inform them of the City’s increased investment in streets. The outreach has included press releases about upcoming projects, a revised and improved streets webpage and annual utility flyers to all residents. The additional investment and outreach has led to a 10% increase in citizen approval of the City’s streets over the last three years as measured by the annual National Citizen Survey.