SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — It’s a sign people around 44th Street and Myrtle Avenue have been waiting to see: road work on their street.
Alfred Gallegos, a resident of Myrtle Street since 2001, said that with the road work, residents no longer need to drive two or three miles per hour around that area.
“Most of it is pretty bad, especially this road right now. Ever since I’ve been here, this one has been the worst,” Duy Nyguen said.
This road might be getting much-needed work. But, the San Diego City Council is getting a better understanding of where the City’s roads stand.
“So the Pavement Management Plan is really important for City Council and for the decision makers because now we know what the true investment is needed to repair our roads,” Bethany Bezak, City of San Diego Transportation Director, said. “And that allows to go road by road and to be able to determine the exact time where paving needs to take place.”
The plan also presented to the council three different ways of identifying the streets in need of repair: by picking the worst street first, the most used streets first, or the best value model.
A recommended action was for the best value model.
“It allows us to take a look at maximizing the roads that have the most traveled cars that need the attention the most ultimately through a best value approach. It doesn’t mean everything is going to be addressed. But, it does get us closer,” Bezak said.
The plan shows the scale to assess street pavement conditions - which is called a pavement condition index or PCI.
A city spokesperson tells me that crews are resurfacing the portion of Myrtle Avenue in City Heights, which has a very poor PCI of 28.
From 2016 to 2023, San Diego streets went from a PCI of 71 to 63.
The City says that the average rating is satisfactory to fair when most cities want a 70 or higher.
“Having this full plan in place allows us to have more of a visionary guiding document moving forward,” Bezak said.
But the price tag to get to San Diego streets to that 70 or higher average is an estimated $1.9 billion over 10 years.
“It’s a shock that it costs that much, yeah. But it’s not a shock that it would take ten years to complete it,” Nguyen said.
The data showed the council on Tuesday that the projected funding currently stands at $645 million.
“The Transportation Department is mostly funded right now through the general fund, which, on an annual basis, has to compete with funding for all of the other infrastructure assets across the City," Bezak said. "So, what this plan demonstrates is that the General fund cannot really close the gap. And there will be a need for additional funding sources moving forward."
No action was taken by the City Council as Tuesday’s item was for informational purposes.
