Provide City Council Recommendation for 2016 Crackseal and Sealcoat Improvements, Improvement Project #16-00 Division A

Purpose:
The purpose of this case is to review Staff’s proposed plans for Division A of the 2016 Street Maintenance Program, cracksealing and sealcoating improvements, as well as a summary of funds allocated to cracksealing and sealcoating improvements since 2012, and to provide a recommendation to City Council related to approving the proposed improvement plans for 2016.

Background:
As part of the city's long-term Street Maintenance Program, various city streets receive cracksealing and sealcoating improvements each year to help maximize the life expectancy of street pavement sections. Cracksealing streets helps prevent stormwater runoff from seeping through cracks in the pavement and through joints between the pavement and concrete curb and gutter and/or utility castings, thereby reducing future pavement damage due to wet pavement subgrades. Sealcoating streets helps protect the pavement from the negative effects of stormwater runoff, the sun’s rays, and oil based by-products deposited on the surface of the pavement by vehicles using the street.

City staff has therefore prepared plans for Division A of the 2016 Street Maintenance Project which involves cracksealing and sealcoating approximately 13.53 miles of municipal streets in various locations throughout the City.  Attached is Exhibit A showing the locations of all streets throughout the city to be crack sealed and sealcoated in 2016.  Also attached is a cost estimate for the proposed improvements, including cost breakouts for each street segment.

Per page 1 of the cost estimate, Staff is proposing to fog seal two areas; Ramsey Meadows 2^nd Addition and the Fire Station 1 parking lot.  Fog sealing was completed on several streets last year on a trial basis to determine if the benefits outweighed the costs.  Other cities have been fog sealing over sealcoat applications in recent years and reportedly observed benefits including that the pavement looks newer for longer, plus the fogsealing locks the sealcoat rocks in better preventing the rock from making its way into garages, homes and businesses on tires and the bottoms of shoes.  However, based on field observations this spring, staff found roughly the same amount of loose rock on streets that were fog sealed versus streets that were not.  Staff therefore does not believe the application of fog seal in conjunction with sealcoating provides enough benefit to outweigh the additional cost for most streets.  That said, staff is proposing to fog seal Ramsey Meadows 2^nd Addition due to the newer condition of the abutting streets.  Fogsealing will help blend this year’s sealcoating in to those streets due to the darker surface it provides.  Fog sealing is also anticipated to benefit Fire Station 1 by reducing the amount of loose rock being tracked into the bays.
 
No Traprock is being proposed with this year’s project.
 
Staff plans to request City Council approval of plans and specifications and authorization to advertise for bids for Division A of the 2016 Street Maintenance Program on May 24^th.
 
Also attached to this case is a summary of funding allocations spent on sealcoating projects since 2012, which will be discussed with the Committee in more detail.

Approximately 5 minutes for presentation and discussion.

Observations:
The streets identified for receiving improvements with Division A of the 2016 Street Maintenance Program were selected by City staff based on various criteria including their Pavement and Surface Evaluation Rating (PASER), previous maintenance history, project scope, and other more intangible criteria.

Alternatives:
Alternative #1 - Motion recommending Council approval of plans as prepared by staff for Improvement Project #16-00, Division A.

Alternative #2 - Motion of other.

The estimated project cost for all improvements identified in Division A of the 2016 Street Maintenance Program is $519,411. This includes 14% indirect costs for administrative, engineering, legal and financing. A total of $500,000 was budgeted for sealcoating work in 2016, leaving an estimated gap of $19,411.  However, staff anticipates bids will be favorable and will come in slightly lower that the engineer’s estimate meaning there may not be a gap.  And if bids come in higher for some reason, staff will then pull an appropriate segment from the 2016 program to get costs below $500,000.

No assessments are proposed to fund any portion of Division A of the 2016 Street Maintenance Program.

Staff recommends Alternative Action #1.