Agenda - Public Works Committee - 01/19/1999

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CASE # 2 1999 STREET MAINTENANCE PROGRAM By: Steven Jankowski, City Engineer Background: Since 1981, the City of Ramsey has conducted an annual street maintenance program, whose purpose was t¢ address the preventative maintenance of the City's asphalt pavements. The history of the ~. ity's paved streets and their maintenance is summarized on the attached table. From 1981 until I990, the program consisted predominantly of sealcoating and the full cost of the program Was special assessed. Beginning in 1991 until the present time, the City has financed 50% [of the program cost. Because of the City Charter and Minnesota Statute #427 requirements, it is necessary to initiate the program in January and February in order to allow sufficient lead4time for construction to take place in early summer. In addition to Covering the same elements which have been presented to the Committee over the last seven programs, staff felt it may be an appropriate time, considering Council and administrative[ changes, to review and reconsider some of the longstanding policies of this program. Therefore, this case will be divided into two segments with the first reviewing the technical and fiscal requirements of the 1999 program. The second portion will be devoted to reviewing the i'elated assessment policy and seeking input on possible changes to that policy. The 1999 Proposed Street Maintenance Program [ The frequency of preventative maintenance on the City's bituminous pavements has varied cc ~siderably, with some pavements receiving a sealcoating as little as two years and others as much as ten years after initial construction. In general, however, our current goal is to sealcoat a new bituminogs pavement five years after construction and readdress maintenance at seven years thereafter. In! general, the scheduled pavement history for a Ramsey City street would be as follows: Year' Action 0 Construction 5 Sealcoat 12 Sealcoat 19 Overlay 24 Sealcoat The City's oldest pavements are just beginning to reach the end of this idealized cycle. It will be necessary to ~valuate how much longer this pavement might be expected to perform before undergoing a ~omplete reconstruction. The 1999 program has a City budget of $165,000 which, under our pr~ent policy will be leveraged with another $165,000 in special assessments. In addition, developer escrows of $49,000 are available to reduce the assessment costs for the first sealeoating or, the Rivenwick and certain Northfork subdivisions. A program in the approximate amount of $350,000 is anticipated. Because of a backlog of projects which were due for