Did You Ever Wonder? ~ A column published Sundays in The Gazette in Colorado Springs, CO.

Why does a street get paving favoritism?

May 12th, 2011, 6:14 pm · Post a Comment · posted by

I’m wondering how the city decides which streets to repave.  We have a main road running through our subdivision that every summer gets a nice new paving, even though it doesn’t even really need it.  Centennial between Garden of the Gods and Fillmore, however, is traveled by thousands more cars than our street.  It has been patched, re-patched and re-patched again and again.  Every time I see the trucks there, I think just maybe they will repave, but it’s always just more patching that causes an even rougher ride on that road. 
— PAO

A: The City Street Division said it is “not aware of any street in this city that has been resurfaced on an annual basis.” However, there could be a combination of problems with that street involving several different agencies. “To better investigate this issue, could we have the name of the street?” the division requested.

City Traffic Engineer Dave Krauth provided city paving guidelines:

The City Street Division gives each street a rating or grade. The resulting Pavement Quality Index or PQI shows what type of repair would be best.

Using the PQIs, a prioritized, multi-year list of streets in need of repair is developed. A preliminary list of streets to overlay, chip seal and slurry seal goes to other agencies to ensure that major work isn’t scheduled to be done on the newly paved road for at least five years.  A final list is developed and all other streets needing maintenance are deferred.

The PQI for Centennial Boulevard from Garden of the Gods Road to Fillmore Street  shows multiple areas requiring major repairs. “Reconstructing these areas would require a large portion of the entire Street Division’s yearly resurfacing budget,” according to the division. Until the budget allows, only basic maintenance such as pothole patching can be done.

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