The stretch of Prospect Road between Maria Lane and Parker Ranch Road, which is rife with broken street edges, cracks and potholes, will be leveled and restriped in a joint project between the city of Saratoga and county of Santa Clara.

"What's bad now will be really bad a year from now. We're trying to get a jump on things," Morgan Kessler, assistant engineer in the city's public works department, said in describing the road's condition.

The public works department came to the conclusion that the road, co-owned by the city and county, was badly in need of repair following assessments of all the roads in the city conducted a couple years back. Using a uniform system of scoring the roads, with a score of "0" being the worst and "100" being a perfectly new road, the part of Prospect Road near the Saratoga Country Club was given one of the lowest scores, Kessler said.

It is important that the road be repaved, since many bicyclists use it on their way to the park and open space further up the hill, said Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith. According to Waltonsmith, groups of bicyclists have come before the city council on two separate occasions during the past couple years to complain about the road's condition.

There is no official word yet on when the pavement project will begin, though Kessler speculated it might take place around March. Once the project begins, it should take about four days to complete. During that time, the road most likely won't be closed off, Kessler said. Instead, the city will rely on signs and men directing drivers and bicyclists to control traffic.

In a special meeting Dec. 26, the city council agreed to front the $79,200 needed for the project, with half that amount reimbursed by the county upon completion of the project. The city has awarded a contract to Bortollo, Inc. of San Carlos for the work.

Such joint projects have taken place between Saratoga and its neighboring cities in the past, such as another paving project in July 2001 along a stretch of Prospect Road that borders the city of Cupertino.