Palo Alto Street Maintenance Program

The City of Palo Alto Public Works Department maintains 200 miles of streets.  The City has used its own Pavement Maintenance Management System (PMMS) since the mid 1970’s and in 2009 Palo Alto successfully completed a correlation between our PMMS and StreetSaver and calculated the City’s first pavement condition index of 72.  Since then, Palo Alto has been focused on improving pavement conditions across the City’s network.   In October 2010, City Council appointed a 17-member Infrastructure Blue Ribbon Commission (IBRC) to examine the City’s infrastructure and determine a plan to keep our existing            infrastructure maintained in good condition.  By 2010, Palo Alto’s average rating for streets was 73, placing it below many neighboring communities’ PCI score and the IBRC determined that nearly 20% of all Palo Alto’s streets were rated under 60.  IBRC recommended that, by 2021, no Palo Alto streets have a PCI rating below 60 and City Council established a goal of achieving an average citywide PCI of 85, representing excellent pavement condition by 2021.   Since 2009, Palo Alto’s PCI score has increased from 72 to 78 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 2009 in an effort to step-up and address aging City streets.   Palo Alto strives to be a leader in green programs and included the street maintenance program in its efforts. In 2013, Palo Alto completed a 1.5 miles stretch of rubberized asphalt concrete (RAC) paving along Alma Street, once of the busiest streets in town. Another RAC project is planned for this summer for arterial streets Middlefield Road and Alma Street.  The street resurfacing program recently completed a joint project with our storm drain group. The Southgate Neighborhood Storm Drain and Green Street Project was completed in December 2014.   The Southgate neighborhood relies on surface flow along street gutters to a single drain but uneven gutters caused chronic ponding along neighborhood streets.  To address this problem, the project provided improved drainage performance through the use of innovative and environmentally friendly techniques (landscaped retention basins and permeable crosswalks) that reduce runoff, eliminate ponding, and enhance aesthetics in a way that also encourages bicycle and pedestrian travel.  New pavement, curbs, and gutters were installed to complete the project. Palo Alto has been outreaching to its residents to inform them of the city’s increased investment in streets over the last few years.   The outreach has included press releases about upcoming projects, a revised streets webpage and utility flyers to all residents.  The additional investment and outreach has led to an 8% increase in citizen approval of the City’s streets over the last year according to our annual citizen survey.