Austin Transportation and Public Works told the Mobility Committee on Oct. 16 that its FY26 proactive maintenance service plans will focus on preventive preservation across the city’s transportation assets and that the department is releasing a new interactive map to make planned work more visible to council members and residents.

Richard Mendoza, director of Transportation and Public Works, introduced the briefing and said the department will use data and condition assessments to shift more assets from reactive to proactive maintenance. Adam Bailey, asset management team lead, told the committee the city will perform maintenance on roughly 885 lane miles of streets under the FY26 plan, together with preventive maintenance on traffic signals, sidewalks, signs and urban trails.

Bailey provided specific FY26 plans and anticipated outputs: preventive maintenance on all signalized locations (about 1,254 signals and pedestrian hybrid beacons), signal retiming on roughly one‑third of corridors to improve flow, 200 miles of crack seal, 275 miles of seal coat (chip seal), 250 miles of fog seal, 160 miles of overlay, about five miles of sidewalk repairs, inspection and clearing on 46 miles of trails, and replacement or maintenance on about 12,000 signs. The department said the planned street maintenance represents about 11% of the network for FY26 and will bring the network to a “satisfactory” condition score of about 68.5.

ATPW also demonstrated a new ArcGIS‑based public mapping tool that overlays the year’s planned service work and allows filtering by council district and asset type. The mapping tool is intended to help council offices and residents see what maintenance is scheduled in a neighborhood and to support discussions about priorities.

Committee members asked technical and operational questions about pavement treatments. TPW explained chip seal (also called seal coat) is an oil-and-aggregate surface applied to preserve pavement cost‑effectively and that a subsequent fog seal helps lock down aggregate, reducing complaints about loose rock. Ed Poppet, the department’s pavement engineer, said chip seal is “an extremely effective preservation strategy” and that, although it may be rougher than an overlay initially, it is more cost‑effective and has a long service life; overlays remain the smoother but far more expensive option.

Officials also described reporting and response procedures. TPW said vegetation overgrowth in the public right‑of‑way is, by code, the adjoining property owner’s responsibility; when overgrowth creates a pedestrian hazard the department will mitigate it directly. The department said it tracks service‑request response times and meets its service‑level targets 95–98% of the time but encouraged constituents to contact council offices if a request appears to have been missed so staff can elevate it.

Long‑term ATBW goals presented to the committee include expanding proactive maintenance to additional asset classes (pedestrian bridges, alleys, speed cushions, curb and gutter), increasing data collection and condition assessments, and presenting district‑level maintenance summaries to each council district in the coming months.

The committee thanked staff for the presentation and asked staff to continue work to improve public communication about how to report problems and what to expect from the maintenance program.