Santa Clara has 600 miles of roads to maintain but is $2.2 million short of what’s needed to maintain them. The city also has 200 miles of storm drain pipelines and 21 storm drain pump stations that need $480 million in upgrades.
And that’s not the full extent of Santa Clara’s public works’ challenges.
The city also needs $165 million in improvements for sidewalks and curb ramps to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. And Santa Clara’s historic buildings, like the Morse Mansion, need $3 million in maintenance.
Santa Clara’s DPW has identified more than $600 million in needed infrastructure work over a five-year planning horizon, according to Director of Public Works Craig Mobeck. About $40 million of the proposed $400 million infrastructure bond on the Nov. 5 ballot is earmarked for these needs.
Maintaining Pavement Quality With a $2.2 Million Shortfall
Santa Clara street surfaces are still high quality, as rated by the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC) Pavement Quality Index (PCI), but not at the level Santa Clara used to maintain.
In 2008, the city’s PCI score was 84 (“excellent”), and that year, Santa Clara also won the MTC’s Best All-Around Pavement Management Program award.* In the MTC’s most recent report, the City’s PCI score was still “good” (74) and higher than the area average of 67 “fair.”
But the fact is that the budget to maintain Santa Clara’s streets — the miles are growing every year — is short by $2.2 million every year. Every year, there’s some lower priority work that has to be postponed, says Mobeck.
“We lay out projects on a five-year basis right now,” he said. “We plug in our annual budget and develop a work plan. If we get more money, we can plug that in and accomplish a bigger list for every year.”
“That’s anything from putting a slurry seal on the streets that are in okay condition, a new surface,” continued Mobeck, “to removing and replacing any streets that are in bad shape.”
The consequences of not passing the bond wouldn’t be seen immediately, says Mobeck.
“We just can’t do as much. And what that means, as time elapses, our roadway conditions will start to decline,” said Mobeck. “You’ll see more roadways that need repairs or maintenance. We know that [PCI] number would continue to decline.”
Storm Drain System: 200 Miles of Pipes and $0 Dedicated Revenue
Santa Clara’s storm drain system and its 21 pumping stations evolved as the city grew during the fast-growing 1960s and 1970s but never established a dedicated revenue stream to support it, such as a public utility tax.
“It is a costly system to maintain,” said Mobeck. “So we compete again and again on an annual basis with the general fund capital project. We did a master plan some years ago, and it identified, in the current dollars, about $480 million worth of needs. That’s everything from upgrading pipelines to replacing pipelines to pump station replacements.
“When something’s aged, you never know when you’re going to have a problem,” he continued. “This winter, we did have problems with our Lick Mill pump station on Montague, and had to do some emergency work to get pumps removed and sent off to repair. Because this happened during the wet season, we also had to get temporary pumps set up to keep that pump station running.”
Other unfunded needs include the city’s retention basin near the convention center, an artificial pond that manages storm runoff to reduce flooding risk.
“Over the years sediment forms, and so your capacity starts to get reduced,” Mobeck said. “That sediment has to be cleaned out to restore the capacity and make room for the future. That’s on our radar to get that done.”
ADA Accessibility
Santa Clara has a lot of streets and buildings that were built before the Americans with Disabilities Act. Bringing all of that into compliance with the law is another DPW responsibility.
“We analyzed the sidewalks, the curb ramps and the public right-of-ways, and identified the ones don’t meet today’s requirement, and made those priorities,” said Mobeck. “Just these projects add up to $165 million, and we have no funding right now.
“We went through our public-facing buildings,” Mobeck continued, “and said, ‘If I’m a resident coming to this building for a service, whether I’m walking or driving, what areas need to be updated: how I enter the building, how I use the counter, how I use a restroom.’”
The city’s workers do a “great job” with current resources said Mobeck.
“But infrastructure has aged over the years; a lot of things are old, and costs are significantly more than what they were in the past,” he continued. “I think we do a good job at efficiently spending our general fund, at looking for grant opportunities. But at some point that’s just not enough to cover the need and so we need to look to the community to fund these projects to benefit our community.”
*Source: Santa Clara Weekly, January 2, 2008.
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Thanks Lisa!