Pavement study rates Wheat Ridge roads at PCI 66; staff recommends $3 million annually to maintain condition

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — Wheat Ridge public works staff on Jan. 6 presented a citywide pavement condition assessment that returned an overall Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of 66 and recommended a preventative-maintenance program estimated at about $3 million per year to maintain the citywide PCI near 65.

Maria, the city’s Public Works director, told council the city engaged a pavement-scanning vendor (vehicle-based data collection that measures distresses such as cracks and alligator cracking) to rate roughly 130 miles of streets on a 0–100 scale. Staff reported the city’s network includes about 112 miles of local/residential streets, roughly seven miles of collectors and the remainder in arterials.

The scan’s results showed most streets in fair condition, with a significant share in the “good” range and smaller pockets in the poor range. Staff said fully reconstructing or performing mill-and-overlay treatments on all segments with a PCI of 55 or lower would cost approximately $18.8 million, whereas a targeted preventive-maintenance approach that applies appropriate treatments at the right time would extend pavement life and be more cost-effective.

Under staff’s proposal, the city would use a six-year zone cycle for local and collector streets (a separate schedule applies to arterials), concentrate corrective treatments in one zone each year and carry out preventative treatments (slurry seals, crack sealing) in the complementary zone. In 2025, staff described focusing corrective work in zone 1 and preventative maintenance in zone 5. Staff said the PCI data and the zone approach will improve public communications (residents can be told when their zone is scheduled) and help coordinate with utilities to avoid trenching after repaving.

Staff emphasized coordination with other agencies and utilities — including Denver Water’s lead service-line replacements in parts of the city — and said the city will seek to time utility work and pavement work to reduce duplicative digging and costs. Staff also discussed sidewalk inspection improvements using in-house GPS/iPad data collection and said the city will continue to refine sidewalk-tracking efforts without relying on the more costly external 3-D scan approach.

Council asked operational questions about moratoria on trench cuts, manhole covers and repair notification protocols. Maria said the city recently strengthened right-of-way permit and repair requirements and intends stronger enforcement, and staff confirmed citizens can report potholes and pavement defects through the city’s online reporting tools. Kent Kisselman (CIP program manager) and Maria said staff will consider making PCI map information available to the public but noted doing so could generate additional service requests and questions that staff will need to manage.

The presentation concluded with staff saying maintaining a target PCI near 65 will require roughly $3 million in annual investment; council did not take formal action at the study session but directed staff to continue planning, coordinate with utilities and return with ongoing implementation details.