South Lake Tahoe street rehabilitation plan presented to City Council

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Road rehabilitation has long been a concern of City Council, but there hasn't always been money in the budget to do anything more than patching, pothole filling and some resurfacing. With almost 130 miles of roads (260 lane miles) maintained by the City of South Lake Tahoe, with many of them past their prime, it would take millions of dollars to get all of them to a top rating.

During Tuesday's City Council meeting, Public Works Director Ray Jarvis made a presentation of the 2019 Street Rehabilitation Project, a planned start to work on local roads. An analysis of the city's roadway network in the City of South Lake Tahoe shoes a current average Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of 54. A PCI rating of 54 means the overall road network is considered to be in “fair” condition and represents a significantly higher percentage of “fair” to “very poor” roads within the network.

Measure C was defeated in 2017 after voters didn't want a one-half percent sales tax increase to give the City an estimated $2.5 million a year for the next 15 years, funds that would have been dedicated solely to roads.

Since Measure C didn't pass the City has to budget annually for road projects. Jarvis said $3 million is needed annually to address road needs in the city limits, and that would just keep the roads at a PCI of 54 and slow the growth of deferred maintenance.

Last year the City invested approximately $1,900,000 in resurfacing and repairing streets and there is nearly #3.6 million allocated in 2019. This figure comes from the $1,950,000 approved already in 2019, an additional $365,000 of State funding, and approximately $1.25 million of grant funding associated with the larger Sierra Boulevard project.

In 2019 the Gardner Mountain area will be on the receiving end of road maintenance. The area's streets have an average PCI of 32 and it will take almost $2.5M to address their issues.

During the Council meeting, discussion centered on an upcoming project by Southwest Gas to replace many of their pipes over the next 8-10 years. Public Works thought it'd be a waste of time to repave a road that will only be torn apart by the gas pipe project. They said they'd rather follow SWGas but will work with them on a plan so streets desperately needing help don't have to wait years.

The City is starting with 1.8 miles of residential streets on Gardner Mountain because they aren't on the SWGas plans for pipe replacement.

During the discussion Council also agreed to start a Road Preservation Plan, one that would charge utilities a fee if they came in and dug up new roads within a certain number of years after rehabilitation.

Along with Gardner Mountain, the City will work on potholes and the Sierra Boulevard project begins May 1. Funds for the $5.5M Sierra project are coming from federal and state transportation grants, Surface Transportation block funding, Congestion Mitigation grants, greenhouse gas funding, Active Transportation funds along with some local funding and grant required matching funding.

Councilwoman Tami Wallace commented that this year probably isn't the best year to try and complete more road projects than already planned, especially that of 3rd Street, due to several other summer roadwork projects. Caltrans will be finishing their three-year Highway 50 project from Sierra Blvd. to the Trout Creek Bridge, replacing the bridge on Echo Summit (that will close the road for 10 days in the fall, and create one-way traffic all summer), the addition of a roundabout at US50 and SR89, and the Sierra Blvd compete street project.

City Manager Frank Rush has said he would like to see resurfacing of approximately 5 – 6 miles of City streets each year, which would establish a 20 or 25-year life cycle for all City streets. That price tag is approximately $6-$7 million annually, something the Council would also like to see if funds are available.