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Published May 7th, 2014
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Moraga's 2014 Pavement Project
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| By Sophie Braccini |
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More great roads in Moraga - that is the town's plan for the summer. Last year, after passing a 1 percent sales tax, the town spent $2.8 million to refinish half of its residential and neighborhood collector streets. As a result, the pavement index of the town improved from 49 to 58 and the League of California Cities selected Moraga's 2013 Pavement Repair Project as a top 20 finalist in its Outstanding Local Streets and Roads Project Awards Program.
This year's road campaign will start in August and tackle roads that are in far worse condition than those that were fixed last year - consequently it will cost $3.3 million to fix about 10 percent of the residential and 20 percent of the neighborhood collector streets.
"The progress we have achieved, going from 49 to 58 for our pavement index, is quite significant," says Public Works director Edric Kwan. "The plan is that once the 3-year pavement plan is finished, Moraga's global average index over the next 10 years will be 61, with a peak of 67 in 2015." That will raise Moraga from the "poor" category, at the very bottom of the Bay Area barrel, to the "fair" group that includes San Jose, Berkeley and Mill Valley.
Last year the town addressed streets that were in fair condition to make sure they stay in that category. This year the plan is to address some of the "at risk" neighborhood streets, about 23 segments, with a more extensive treatment. The final list of streets has not been released yet; it will include roads such as Larch, Rimer, Calle la Mesa and Danefield.
The failed portions of the streets will be excavated then repaired and covered with a solid road treatment; the whole process will take about 40 working days, according to Kwan.
"The treatment we will apply this year is much thicker," Kwan explains. "Last year it was a rubber emulsion with chips on top and a slurry seal. This year each street will get a specific treatment, such as a 2-inch overlay with the sides ground so it conforms to the gutters; some might be thicker with a 3-inch treatment; every street is treated special." Kwan adds that some streets will get a rubberized asphalt treatment, which lasts twice as long as regular asphalt.
Each street is being assessed precisely, with techniques such as coring (extracting a deep sample to see what the asphalt looks like underneath), and deflection testing, which consists of dropping a heavy metal beam on the street while measuring how much of the shock is deflected by the road. The testing determines the pavement structural layer stiffness and the subgrade resilience.
At this time Moraga's Public Works department is finishing the bid documents for publication in May. The responses will be analyzed and presented to the Town Council for a decision at its July 9 meeting. "This year we will conduct an extensive outreach program to impacted neighbors, as we did last year, and the town's website and Facebook pages will be updated daily so people know exactly what to expect and when," promises Kwan.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA