Willow Glen Resident
News
Multi-million dollar projects approved for city road repairs
By Eli Segall
The bumpy, jarring ride down many San Jose roads may soon smooth out.
The San Jose City Council on May 1 approved the repair of potholes and cracks along 23 miles of city streets, and in a separate vote that day, the city council approved resurfacing 10.4 miles of city roads overdue for repair.
Construction on both projects is scheduled to begin at the end of May. The $1.3 million patchwork project is funded by a road-construction tax and should be completed by August. The $5.6 million resurfacing project is funded by the same tax dollars and the city's general fund. That portion of the repairs is slated for completion in September.
Repair work is scheduled to take place between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.; however, no street will be closed entirely, said Amanda Lei, a city transportation engineer. Traffic disruption should be minimal, she added.
Most streets will have the repair areas blocked off. The worst-case scenario will be a two-lane road squeezed down to one lane, with controlled traffic to alternate the flow of cars, Lei said. All barriers will be removed during construction off-hours.
Notifications will be sent to residents of streets scheduled for repair seven days before construction begins, Lei said.
Residents across San Jose can attest to the bumpy conditions of city streets. Last fall San Jose was ranked worst in the country among major cities for having the greatest share, 66 percent, of roads and highways in sub-par condition, according to TRIP, a Washington, D.C.-based transit advocacy group.
Still, some residents were miffed as to why their street was targeted for repairs.
"I drive all over the city, and I can tell you, there's streets that are a lot worse than this one," said Dan Apple, who lives on Meridian Avenue south of Redmond Avenue, on a block earmarked for patchwork repairs.
Apple said he is a house-call veterinarian and works primarily in Willow Glen and the Rose Garden. "The worst road on Earth is Meridian between Foxworthy and Curtner; it can rattle your teeth, it's so bad."
To do patchwork repairs, which removes and replaces asphalt concrete, contractors will grind out 6 inches of damaged asphalt and fill it with 6 inches of new asphalt, which is then covered with a quarter-inch sealant slathered on top. Streets designated for resurfacing will have patchwork repairs and a 2-inch overlay of hot asphalt poured on top. These streets are in far worse shape than those set to have the remove and replace program only, Lei said.
The recently approved repairs are part of the city's annual pavement maintenance program. They are not part of the recently launched transportation maintenance master plan, which offers open forums on maintenance priorities in each of the 10 city council districts.
