Review of Trail Maintenance Policy Framework

Purpose:
The purpose of this case is to review the framework that staff proposes to use in developing the City of Ramsey’s draft Trail Maintenance Policy.
 
Background:
The City of Ramsey maintains over 50 miles of paved trails. Currently, maintenance of these trails occurs sporadically on an “as-budgeted” basis. While this approach provides the greatest flexibility from a budgeting perspective, it does not result in the most cost-effective approach to maintaining our trail system, nor does it result in a trail system having a consistent or reasonable pavement rating/level of service.  Staff is therefore developing a draft Trail Maintenance Policy that, if followed, will allow the City of Ramsey to maintain its existing system of trails to a specified level of service in as cost-effective a manner as possible.  The policy framework below is proposed to be utilized by staff to develop the draft policy.
 
Trail Inventory –
To maintain the City’s existing system of trails as cost-effectively as possible, each trail segment must be inventoried and cataloged in a database to be maintained and updated by staff on a regular basis.  This database will include the initial year of construction, termini points, type of pedestrian ramp, length, width, surfacing type, pavement section, pavement rating, and maintenance schedule for each trail segment, which is very similar to our street maintenance program database.  This database does not currently exist but staff is currently in the process of inventorying our trails and should have the database fully developed by the end of this summer.
 
Trail Rating System –
Staff proposes to use the same pavement rating system as used to rate our public streets which is the Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) system.  Staff is already familiar with this system so it would be a simple and cost-effective system to implement for rating the pavement condition on our trails.
 
Trail Maintenance Improvement Strategy –
Staff proposes to employ a similar strategy for maintaining trails as is used to maintain City streets.  This primarily involves focusing our efforts on first maintaining all trail segments currently in good condition to prevent them from quickly sliding into a state of disrepair thereby requiring more expensive maintenance treatments, while targeting a fixed mileage of trail segments requiring overlay or reconstruction projects on an annual basis to slowly re-build our trail system to a specified level of service using an average PASER rating as identified by Council.
 
As part of the City’s trail maintenance program, various segments of paved trails having good or excellent ratings will be proposed to receive cracksealing, fogsealing, and/or sealcoating improvements on an annual basis to extend the useful life of these trail segments, while trail segments in poor condition will either receive overlays or be reconstructed to return these trails to an excellent condition whereby they can be more cost-effectively maintained in the future.
 
The benefits of each proposed maintenance treatment are as follows:
 

• Cracksealing - Seals existing cracks one-quarter of an inch or more in width with hot rubberized asphalt to extend pavement life. This prevents stormwater runoff from infiltrating through the pavement and into the underlying subgrade. As stormwater runoff enters pavement through cracks it can wash finer aggregate particles to the bottom of the aggregate base creating voids over time. Then as water accumulates in the underlying subgrade, frost heaving can occur during cold-weather months, further damaging the pavement.
• Fogsealing / Sealcoating - Protects and preserves pavement by sealing the surface to protect it from the negative effects of the sun (oxidizes the pavement), stormwater runoff (strips oil from the pavement), and petroleum products deposited on the pavement, all of which cause the pavement to become brittle and crack over time.
• Overlays - Strengthens the pavement section by restoring a portion of the structural integrity of the pavement, while also helping to prevent moisture intrusion.
• Reconstructions - Restores trails to a new condition.

 
Staff proposes to construct ADA compliant pedestrian curb ramps to existing trail segments during maintenance operations at such time as the abutting trail segment receives an overlay or is reconstructed, or when the street the trail connects to receives an overlay or is reconstructed.
 
Estimated Costs –
Estimated costs will be dependent on numerous factors as discussed herein.  After staff receives direction from the Public Works Committee tonight, estimated costs will be discussed with the Committee at the time the draft Trail Maintenance Policy is presented.

Financing Options –
Financing options for funding trail maintenance operations include annual budgeting through the general levy, purchasing General Obligation (GO) bonds on a project by project basis, or applying Park and Trail funds as applicable.  Public - private partnerships (PPPs) are another option that might be applicable in limited instances.  Each option has benefits and limitations which will be discussed in more detail when the draft Trail Maintenance Policy is presented to the Committee for review.
 

Approximately 25 minutes for presentation and discussion.Approximately 20 minutes, including presentation.

Staff requests Committee direction/feedback on any of the proposed policy framework discussed herein.  Based on the feedback received tonight, staff will prepare a draft Trail Maintenance Policy for future consideration by the Public Works Committee.

Proposed funding sources will be identified within the draft policy.  Staff requests input on this item from the Committee.

Committee input is requested on all aspects of staff's proposed framework as discussed within this report.