SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Driving on roads in Anytown, USA will uncover potholes and roads in need of repair, especially after wet winters. In South Lake Tahoe, locals know first hand the condition of many roads in the community but help is on the way! The Council unanimously approved projects for 2021.
The City of South Lake Tahoe will put three projects out to bid for this year: Lake Tahoe Boulevard from Viking Way to the Y, the entire length of Spruce Avenue and Pioneer Trail from the City Limit to Blackwood Avenue (where last season’s paving project stopped). The estimated cost is $3,697,000. Each street will be milled and receive a four-inch overlay.
The City currently owns and maintains approximately 260 lane miles of streets. The average Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of the streets is 57, which is rated on a scale from 1 to 100. The relatively low citywide PCI represents an overall poor pavement condition. When pavement PCIs reach a failed condition, which is generally considered to be a 50 rating or less, they become much more expensive to repair and require full reconstruction of the roadway as a simple paving won’t work. The three streets in this year’s project list received a 63-66 when last rated a few years ago.
Due to years of deferred or underfunded maintenance, approximately 40 percent of the City streets need to be fully reconstructed and that number continues to rise each year.
Over each of the last four years, the Public Works Department has fully reconstructed 7.84 lane miles of roadways and overlayed 5.74 lane miles of roadways. This represents approximately 5.2% of South Lake Tahoe roadway system. in order to keep their goal of roads being at fair condition (PCI of 73 or above), they need to reconstruct or overlay approximately 13 lane miles of roadway each year, which would require an annual budget of approximately $5,000,000.
The streets selected for the 2021 project were based on a combination of multiple different factors. Besides the PCI, other factors include the highest Annual Average Daily Traffic count (AADT), and traffic safety issues that need to be corrected, drainage infrastructure that is causing the road to fail, and proposed utility work in the area.
Public Works will be coordinating roadwork plans with utilities to prevent cut-ins on the new pavement.
The five proposed street projects for work in 2022 add up to 2.067 miles at a cost today of $2,453,000. They include (see attached) Pioneer Trail from Larch to Ski Run, Ski Run Boulevard from Pioneer Trail to Needle Peak Road, 3rd Street from Lake Tahoe Boulevard to Washington Avenue, Washington Avenue from Tahoe Island to Tahoe Keys Boulevard, and Tahoe Keys Boulevard from Lake Tahoe Boulevard to Venice. Those PCIs run from a low of 38 (Washington Ave) to a high of 70 (Pioneer Trail).