Title
Accelerated Pavement Maintenance Program Update
Description
This report provides an update to the Council on the implementation of the Transportation 2050 five-year $200 million Accelerated Pavement Maintenance Program. The report further requests Council approval to allocate and spend $18 million in available Arizona Highway User Revenue Funds on local street pavement projects over the next two Fiscal Years (Fiscal Years 2021-23) to accelerate paving of local and residential streets and expand the program.
THIS ITEM IS FOR DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION.
Report
Summary
On Aug. 25, 2015, City of Phoenix voters approved the passage of Proposition 104 / Transportation 2050 (T2050), which provides a 0.3 percent increase in the transaction privilege and use tax rate to fund Citywide transportation projects, including the construction and maintenance of City streets. Collection of T2050 sales tax began on Jan. 1, 2016. The Street Transportation Department (Streets) receives 13.8 percent of annual T2050 revenues to support the construction and maintenance of City streets, improve mobility opportunities, and enhance technology on Phoenix’s major street network.
On Oct. 3, 2018, the Council provided unanimous direction to Streets staff to develop a plan that advanced $200 million in Streets T2050 funding over five years to accelerate pavement maintenance on arterial and major collector streets. The Council subsequently approved the Accelerated Pavement Maintenance Program (APMP), which focused on the acceleration of planned asphalt mill and overlay projects on arterial and major collector streets beginning in Fiscal Year (FY) 2018-19 and wrapping up in FY 2022-23.
To leverage the T2050-funded acceleration of arterial and major collector street paving projects, Streets also advanced planned asphalt mill and overlay projects on local and minor collector streets, using Arizona Highway User Revenue Funds (HURF). The HURF acceleration condensed five years (FYs 2018-23) of planned overlay projects into two years (FYs 2018-20). However, this acceleration of local and minor collector street paving work meant that these streets would not have any asphalt mill and overlay projects for essentially three years (FYs 2020-23).
Phoenix’s Street Network
Phoenix has a comprehensive roadway network of more than 4,871 miles of public streets. The network is made up of arterial, collector, and local streets. Arterials are major streets, which are typically the major north/south and east/west transportation corridors spaced at each mile. Collectors are important mid-level transportation corridors, which are generally on the 1/2-mile north/south and east/west streets between the arterial streets. Local streets are typically in residential areas and provide connectivity between the collectors and arterials for local traffic. Pavement maintenance projects on arterial and major collector streets are primarily funded by T2050, while pavement maintenance projects on minor collector and local streets are funded primarily by HURF.
APMP Implementation and Results to Date
With Council's direction, Streets staff undertook extensive community outreach to collect input from the public on what streets were most in need of being included in the APMP. That outreach included over 80 community meetings, reaching over 11,700 residents to explain and provide details about the APMP, and solicit feedback from the community. In addition, the outreach effort also included an interactive public input and pin-drop tool that highlighted areas of concern with City streets. Streets staff also focused a significant amount of time in coordination with the City’s utility partners and right-of-way stakeholders.
Following this successful community engagement process, Streets staff sought to create a resource to provide comprehensive and updated information to the public about the APMP. This became an interactive pavement maintenance dashboard tool, which could easily be used by residents, businesses, elected officials, City staff, utility companies, developers, and anyone else. The web-based dashboard was launched in English and Spanish versions and in desktop or mobile-friendly versions. Built in-house by a team of Streets employees, the accelerated pavement maintenance dashboard became a critical, popular, and award-winning feature of the APMP, which has continued to help inform the public of upcoming paving work and shaped staff’s approach to coordinating their paving work schedules.
As Streets moved into implementation of the APMP, their extensive coordination with industry and education partners, along with other City departments, utility companies, and right-of-way stakeholders has allowed Streets to complete approximately 80 percent of the planned APMP work in 60 percent of the planned time frame. Streets has emphasized communication over the past three years, providing ongoing regular updates to the Mayor's Office and Council offices through monthly reports that highlighted paving progress in each Council District. To date, through the APMP, Streets has completed over 520 miles of mill and overlay projects on City streets, and we still have plenty more work to complete over the next two years.
In addition to smooth new pavement, APMP improvements have also included Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements and enhancements, with approximately 13,000 new or upgraded ADA curb ramps to date. The APMP has also contributed to the City's and T2050's mobility infrastructure goals through the creation of 83 new miles of bicycle lanes, including 35 miles of buffered bike lanes.
The APMP has also provided Streets with significant opportunities for innovation. Asphalt millings are a major byproduct produced during the asphalt mill and overlay process. Streets staff researched ways to recycle and reuse this material to reduce contributions to a landfill and hopefully achieve cost savings to the City. Streets now stores the recycled millings at City facilities and the City’s paving contractors process the millings for use in the City’s pavement maintenance program as Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) or for alley dust proofing. Since the start of the APMP, over 9,500 tons of RAP have been used in slurry seal and micro surfacing pavement projects across the City.
Another key innovation that Streets has engaged in is the Cool Pavement Pilot program. Although not directly tied to the APMP, the Cool Pavement Pilot was implemented last Summer while Streets paved hundreds of miles through the APMP and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the goal of reducing the daytime heating of the pavement, thereby leading to cooler night-time temperatures around the treated areas. The Cool Pavement Pilot Program is another innovative approach to pavement management. Currently, nine residential street quarter sections across the city have been treated with cool pavement sealant. Staff are finalizing their initial research and evaluation work with Arizona State University that is analyzing the benefits of using Cool Pavement technologies and evaluating the City's Cool Pavement Pilot Program.
As noted earlier, the APMP is an award-winning program, garnering both team and individual City of Phoenix Employee Excellence Awards, as well as an Award for Exemplary Systems in Government from the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association in 2021 for the creation and implementation of the public pavement maintenance dashboard.
Pavement Maintenance Goals and Budgets for Local Streets
Although the APMP has helped address pavement issues across many miles of City streets and reduced the number of pavement-related complaints and calls received from residents and businesses, the APMP would not have been possible or as successful without the leadership and unanimous support from the Mayor and Council. However, pavement maintenance is never finished; it is a continuous investment. APMP's focus has been on arterial and major street paving projects, with an initial and short-term advancement of local and minor street paving projects. Streets has received numerous requests for more paving of residential streets.
To address these requests, Streets staff requests Council approval to allocate and spend $18 million in HURF on local street pavement projects over the next two fiscal years (FYs 2021-23) to accelerate paving of local and residential streets. This funding would equate to paving 18 residential street quarter sections over two years. Streets staff would work with the Mayor and each Council member to identify and select two residential street quarter sections each to receive asphalt mill and overlay treatments over the next two fiscal years. Potential quarter section options will be provided to the Mayor and Council based off data collected from the City's Pavement Management System.
Concurrence/Previous Council Action
The City Council directed staff to accelerate pavement maintenance on arterial and major collector streets by advancing $200 million in Street Transportation Department T2050 revenues over the next five years on Oct. 3, 2018.
Public Outreach
Staff has conducted more than 80 public meetings, reaching over 11,700 residents to explain the program and listen to feedback from the community and conducted a social media campaign generating over 42,000 views.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Mario Paniagua and the Street Transportation Department.