Moraga staff recommend balanced 20‑year street plan; council voices support

The Town of Moraga on April 9 heard a townwide street management update from Public Works Director Sean Knapp, who recommended a “balanced” 20‑year maintenance strategy to preserve the town’s current pavement condition index and to fund storm‑drain and landslide repairs.

Knapp told the council the town manages about 56 centerline miles — roughly 10,000,000 square feet — of pavement. “Our PCI is up to amazing 78%,” Knapp said, and he estimated the replacement cost of the town’s roadway network at about $160 million and deferred maintenance at about $22 million.

The presentation outlined four modeling scenarios and staff’s preferred option (scenario 5), a mixed program of preventive maintenance, overlays and targeted reconstructions. Staff said scenario 5 best balances maintaining a high average PCI while funding a scheduled set of safety, ADA and storm‑drain projects. Knapp said staff recommends carving out about $600,000 per year for the first seven years specifically for storm‑drain and localized landslide repairs and noted that one storm‑drain program Knapp identified is roughly $1.6 million and that staff found about $300,000 in savings that allowed adding five additional locations to the program.

Why it matters: about 65% of the town’s pavement program funding comes from Measure K, a local sales tax measure passed by voters in 2012. Measure K is scheduled to sunset in 2032; staff said losing that revenue would substantially reduce annual funding and lower the town’s PCI over time if no replacement revenues are secured.

Knapp described the pavement‑management approach in practical terms: preserve the best streets with preventive maintenance, repair the worst streets when rapid intervention is needed, and use critical‑point treatments to keep streets from declining into expensive reconstructions. He explained the different treatment classes (chip seals/microsurfacing, overlays/mill and fill, and reconstruction) and showed year‑by‑year project results from the last five years, including hundreds of square yards of pavement and concrete repair and multiple large projects covering dozens of streets.

Staff noted additional items that feed into street projects: safety improvements (striping, crosswalks, buffered bike lanes), ADA push‑button upgrades, curb‑ramp work, and coordination with storm‑drain repairs and utility clearances. Knapp also said the department uses StreetSaver software (the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s pavement‑management tool) to model treatments and costs.

Costs and scenarios described in the presentation included staff estimates that maintaining a PCI near 78 could average about $6 million per year; a balanced scenario with the storm‑drain cutout averages roughly $3.7 million annually; and a no‑Measure‑K scenario would return funding levels toward the pre‑Measure‑K era and lower the town’s PCI significantly. Staff emphasized the modeling uses conservative escalation assumptions but said in‑house design and management work has produced savings in past projects.

Council members asked about revenue assumptions (including state gas tax trends amid rising electric vehicle use), the town’s authority and responsibility for slide repairs (staff said slides originating on town property are town responsibility), and the status of specific streets scheduled next year (Moraga Road and Canyon Road were cited as planned work). Knapp said some country‑club streets are private and that about one‑quarter of the roads in that neighborhood are public and therefore candidates for town work.

Several council members praised staff performance and the decision to use Measure K funds to cover sidewalk/concrete repairs during town projects; council discussion also flagged potential long‑term funding tools, including impact fees tied to redevelopment, enhanced infrastructure financing districts and state grant programs. Staff and council said they will continue to prioritize safety and ADA improvements within paving projects and will seek continued public support should a Measure K renewal be considered before 2032.

Votes at a glance

- Adopt meeting agenda — Passed unanimously, 4–0. - Approve consent agenda — Passed unanimously, 4–0. - Request future agenda item: farmers market presentation/discussion — Passed unanimously, 4–0.

The council did not hold any public hearings and received no public commenters on the street management item. Knapp said staff will return to the council with project‑level plans and budgets; council members indicated support for staff’s recommended balanced approach and asked staff to continue refining costs and funding strategies ahead of the budget process.