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1. Where does the money come from?

The City receives about $1.75 million each year for street pavement maintenance and street resurfacing from State gasoline taxes. At this level of maintenance, street conditions in Ventura have slowly deteriorated over time. We project that to keep the streets at its current condition, we need approximately $10.1 million per year. Given this situation, we try to use the available funding where it will have the greatest long term value. Your dollars are best spent when we can use low-cost slurry sealing or cape seals to delay the time when the street will need a more costly overlay or reconstruction. Many residents ask why we are doing work on a good street and ignoring bad ones. We are simply utilizing available funding in the most cost effective manner for the overall road system.

2. How much does it cost?

There are 4 types of pavement maintenance: routine patching, slurry seal coating, overlay, and reconstruction. The type of maintenance method used is determined by the pavement condition, drainage, traffic, economic considerations, future maintenance needs, as well as types of material and equipment available. Comparing the cost of each method will help you appreciate why we try to prolong the life of our streets and avoid reconstruction.

Routine patching: $2,000 - $7,500 per lane mile. This includes filling potholes, covering trenches for utility work, sealing cracks, and other miscellaneous repairs to preserve the life of the pavement.

Slurry seal coating: $15,000 - $25,000 per lane mile. A slurry seal coating is a very thin asphalt sand and oil emulsion (slurry) that seals pavement and slows its rate of deterioration.

Cape Seal: $50,000 - $75,000 per lane mile. Coarse layer of hot rubberized oil embedded rock chips with a slurry seal on top of it.

Overlay: $100,000 - $300,000 per lane mile. An overlay places a new layer of pavement on top of the existing pavement and can extend a streets life by approximately 15 - 20 years.

Reconstruction: $500,000 - $1,000,000 per lane mile. Reconstruction involves removing the existing pavement and rebuilding an entirely new pavement section.

3. How does the City decide which streets to pave?

The City has a computerized Pavement Management System which assists in tracking and prioritizing the maintenance needs of City streets. The System is based upon the proven concept that it is far less costly to proactively maintain streets rather than allow them to deteriorate to the point of needing reconstruction.

All streets are visually inspected for pavement condition based upon a number of factors including cracking, rutting and wear. The appropriate pavement repair method is then determined and a cost estimate for that repair method is calculated. This repair cost is factored into the traffic load carried by the street to determine a cost/benefit ratio for the pavement repairs.

Major street maintenance is prioritized based upon the cost/benefit ranking. This results in the most efficient use of available funding. All streets are scheduled for repairs using this objective method of prioritization and available funding.