Agenda - Council Work Session - 11/19/2013 - Joint CC & Charter

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CC Work Session 2. 2. Meeting Date: 11/19/2013 Information Title: Long -Term Street Maintenance Program Background Presentation Purpose /Background: The City of Ramsey maintains over 174 miles of city streets. City staff has been rating and evaluating the pavement condition of all city streets for many years using the Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) system. Attached is a map showing the PASER ratings of all city streets. Currently, about 23.5% of city streets have a PASER rating between 0 and 6, whereas 76.5% are rated between 7 and 10. While the majority of city streets currently have a PASER rating of 7 or greater, which is identified as one of the city's Strategic Initiatives in the recently adopted Strategic Action Plan, the PASER ratings on many of our city streets will decrease fairly rapidly over the coming years unless a long -term street maintenance program (SMP) is soon developed and implemented. This is because more than 45% of city streets were constructed in the 10 year period between 1976 and 1985, meaning these streets have been in service for almost 30 to 40 years. And since most of these streets have not received regular maintenance during their life, they will likely be nearing the end of their useful lives over the next decade or so. A long -term street maintenance program must therefore be implemented as soon as possible to allow these streets to be better maintained in the future to prolong their lives as much as possible, thereby avoiding the need to reconstruct 45% of all city streets within the next decade or so, resulting in a huge financial burden on the city. The City has been discussing the adoption of a long -term Street Maintenance Program (SMP) for many years. Attached is the City Council case from March 19, 2013 which outlines work completed by staff in 2009 pertaining to the implementation of a long -term SMP. In 2009 staff estimated that an annual cost of $3,200,000 would be needed to fund a long -term SMP based on maintaining a PASER system rating of 7 or better on all 142 miles of non - Municipal State Aid System (MSAS) city streets (it was assumed at the time that any funds needed to maintain the city's 36 miles of MSAS streets would be taken from the city's annual MSAS allocation). Staff's estimated costs accounted for all costs required to maintain all non -MSA city streets assuming a 40 year useable design life which required 4 crackseal and sealcoat projects, 1 overlay project, and 1 reconstruction project to be completed. Initial construction costs were not factored in. This yielded an estimated total cost of $9,588,203 for maintaining all non -MSAS streets over a 5 year period from 2011 to 2015, equating to an annual cost of $1,917,640.60. Staff also estimated costs for maintaining the same streets for a 10 year period from 2011 to 2020 which totaled $72,401,106 and equated to an annual cost of $7,240,110.60. In 2013 the City Council directed staff to re- evaluate the estimated costs for implementing a long -term street maintenance program. Staff first examined the previously assumed 40 year design life of city streets. Recent studies have concluded that streets which are constructed over well- drained subgrade soils, such as the sands found in the Anoka sand plain which Ramsey is located in, and which receive regularly scheduled maintenance, can reasonably be expected to have useful lives of 60 years or so. Therefore, staff determined that if the City was able to annually dedicate the necessary funds to properly maintain all city streets, it should be reasonable to expect the city streets in Ramsey to last for 60 years between reconstructions. To properly maintain all city streets, staff developed the following street maintenance program. All streets should be crack sealed 3 years after initial construction, all overlays, and following reconstruction. Concurrent crack sealing and seal coating operations should be applied in years 6, 13, 26, 33, 46, and 53. Overlay and edge milling operations should be applied in years 20 and 40. Then, in approximately year 60, either a reclaim and repave project or a full reconstruction project should occur, after which the street maintenance cycle would start all over again. Staff then updated the city streets database, which contains detailed design information for all street segments throughout the city, to ensure the new estimated costs would be as accurate as possible by making sure all street