Portsmouth presents roads and bridges plan: $4.3M now, proposal to rise to $8M then $15M to reduce paving cycle

Director of Public Works Gerard Robinson told the City Council Monday that Portsmouth has about 884 moving lane miles to maintain and presented the city’s current paving and bridges condition, a $4.3 million FY25 paving budget and a proposed funding ramp to reduce the city’s paving cycle.

Robinson said the city’s FY25 paving budget is $4,300,000 and staff estimates paving roughly 20 lane miles in the coming cycle. He described the city’s existing cycle as 30–40 years for different road types and said the goal is a realistic target of about a 25‑year paving cycle.

“The City Of Portsmouth has, 884 moving lanes,” Robinson said in his opening remarks. He explained lane‑mile accounting and condition scoring used to prioritize work, referencing the critical condition index (CCI) and VDOT inspections for state roads.

What staff proposed: Robinson presented a multi‑year funding concept — $8,000,000 for FY26 and an incremental $1,000,000 annual increase for several years to reach a $15,000,000 annual paving budget — that staff says would help move the paving cycle toward the 25‑year target. Robinson gave a per‑lane‑mile benchmark figure of about $228,000 for arterial lane miles (not accounting for inflation) and said the FY26 proposal would include offering a strategic pavement management contract to forecast multi‑year needs and score roads annually.

Bridges and projects: Staff noted the city maintains five bridges and summarized recent and upcoming work. Paradise Creek Bridge is programmed for replacement with an estimated total project cost of about $60 million and a federal share cited at roughly $14.5 million; Churchland Bridge reconstruction work and other bridge maintenance were also discussed. Robinson said bridge inspections occur every two years and underwater inspections every five years.

Council questions and concerns: Council members asked for more detail and clearer public materials. Multiple members requested a five‑year paving plan and a readable list of streets scheduled for the next paving cycle; they said residents frequently ask when particular streets will be repaved and asked that council be able to answer with firm timelines. Councilman Hugo asked staff to provide an electronic copy of the presentation slides because some slides were hard to read.

Contracting, backlog and reporting: Robinson and other staff described contract approaches: the city currently uses multiple paving contractors on one‑year contracts with renewal options to preserve flexibility and evaluate performance. For short, urgent repairs where an existing contractor was not available, staff said they were using quick quotes to move work forward (for example, to address below‑grade manhole covers on Cedar Lane) and estimated a realistic completion timeline of roughly 60 days after vendor selection for that work.

Truck traffic and funding: Council members raised concerns about truck traffic and overweight vehicles from port activity damaging local roads. Vice Mayor Moody urged consideration of a weight enforcement unit to deter overweight trucks, noting such units can both reduce road damage and generate enforcement revenue; staff said pursuing additional state and legislative funding for heavily traveled routes affected by port traffic should be part of the city’s next legislative agenda.

Next steps: Staff said the FY26 budget proposal will include the higher paving allocation and recommended contracting for pavement management services to produce a five‑year forecast and annual updates. Council members asked that staff return with a readable five‑year paving plan and the street list used to select next year’s 20 lane miles.