Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
UPDATE ON COMPREHENSIVE CITY-WIDE STREET UPGRADE PROGRAM
Body
I. SUMMARY
As part of the ongoing obligation to assess the condition of City-owned streets every several years, Public Works hired NCE in 2021 to prepare a Pavement Management Program (PMP) and determine the condition of the City’s streets. The results were presented to City Council on May 24, 2022 and indicated that there has been significant pavement deterioration throughout the City due to deferred maintenance over the last decade. Five years ago, when the same study was completed by NCE, the overall city street Pavement Condition Index (PCI) was 67, and now it is 56. Their recommendation in 2017 was for the City to increase the PCI to 70, which would have cost approximately $9.8M per year over 10 years. Now to bring the streets to the same PCI of 70 the cost is $16.5M over the same length of time. Exhibit No. 1 presents the current condition of the streets in Carson based on their rating, which is based on an evaluations of all streets in the City.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
RECEIVE AND FILE.
Body
III. ALTERNATIVES
TAKE another action the Council deems appropriate consistent with the requirements of the law.
IV. BACKGROUND
On June 8, 2021, Public Works hired the consulting firm NCE to complete a city-wide street analysis in 2021 and presented the results to City Council on May 24, 2022. The results indicated that throughout the City there has been significant pavement deterioration. Five years ago, when the same study was completed, the overall city street PCI was 67 and it has fallen to 56. The original recommendation in 2017 was to increase the PCI to 70 at a cost $9.8M per year, but today the same recommendation is $16.5M per year because of increased construction costs and the greater amount of deterioration. Exhibit No. 1 presents the current condition of the streets in Carson based on their rating. The rating was based on site evaluations of all streets.
For the comprehensive city-wide street program, Public Works has added scope of work to NCE’s contract for them to provide alternatives using various amounts of funding. These alternatives will be presented to City Council at a future meeting to obtain direction on the expenditure of funds.
However, the immediate effort is considered Phase 1 of the Comprehensive City-Wide Street Update Program, and it is the use of a portion of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds received by the City by the Federal government. On June 7, 2022 City Council allocated $3.5M of its ARPA funds for street improvements. Public Works will use this money to improve 36 miles of streets throughout the City in an equitable manner, as shown in Exhibit No. 2. In an effort to take advantage of economies of scale, and to complete the project in an expedited manner, staff will recommend the waiver of the formal bidding process and authorize the use of the “piggybacking: section of the city’s purchasing ordinance that allows Carson to use the City of Los Angeles’ competitive bidding process for the exact same services which will provide a significant cost savings and allow more streets to be done for the same money.
Staff from the City of Carson’s Right of Way (ROW) Maintenance division will perform the required pavement crack sealing prior to the private Contractor applying the slurry seal. The city will utilize rubberized slurry seal due to its superior benefits over conventional slurry seal in preventing deterioration of the existing pavement.
This is a very cost-effective approach and Public Works is able to illustrate the capabilities of existing ROW maintenance staff and their equipment, and engineering’s ability to work with the city of Los Angeles. The schedule for expending the ARPA funds is to present the quantity and scope of work to the Contractor and negotiate the price to implement and complete the project, it is anticipated that a construction contract will be awarded to the contractor in September 2022. Assuming there are no issues with the supply chain, completion of the streets using the ARPA funds is expected by the end of October. This will be a significant effort by both the Engineering and ROW maintenance crews and a great collaboration between the two divisions.
The ARPA Slurry Seal scope of work will be structured with the objective to use the ARPA funds designated by City Council in the most cost-effective and efficient manner. The scope of work will be written such that up to four crews will start throughout the City in each council district. Depending on the size of the contractor it could be one or more firm.
Phase 2 is the design of the more complicated street repairs, generally the City’s arterials, and these projects are usually grind and overlay but can be more, which are much more expensive and lengthy. These projects will also include the green street and complete street elements to comply with the LA County Regional Water Quality Control Board’s stormwater permit requirements. Arterials are the streets where there is extensive residential and commercial usage as well as truck traffic, generally they consist of 2 to 3 lanes, and are considered from a transportation perspective a major circulation road. The design process often takes up to a year or more and includes striping designs, stormwater capture, street cooling components, traffic signage, asphalt pavement and concrete curb, gutter, and sidewalk repair. A competitive Request for Proposal will be required for the design before the Invitation for Bid goes out for construction.
Based on what has already been completed, Exhibit No. 1 presents the existing condition of streets in the city. Public Works will come back and present to City Council a more detailed plan of repair over the next 5-10 years based on funding approvals and requests of Public Works by City Council. There will be significant construction and some disruption during the construction phases and residents, staff, and employees of Carson businesses will be impacted.
V. FISCAL IMPACT
None at this time, but additional funding requests will come as projects and street programs are submitted for Council approval.
VI. EXHIBITS
1. Exhibit No. 1 - Current Carson Streets Current PCI Condition Map (pg. 4)
2. Exhibit No. 2 - ARPA Slurry Seal Map (pg. 5)
1.
Prepared by: Eliza Jane Whitman, PE, LEED AP, ENV SP, Directorr of Public Works