Salinas commission adopts 2025–26 restriping priority list; staff to report back after work completes

The Salinas Traffic and Transportation Commission voted Thursday to recommend that the City Council approve the 2025–26 prioritization of restriping projects, after staff outlined a constrained budget and criteria for selecting streets.

Staff told the commission the city has approximately $300,000 in the restriping budget for the fiscal year, with about $50,000 identified for administrative costs and a contingency reserve intended to respond to smaller requests. Jonathan Hernandez, a traffic-division staff member, presented a ranked list of candidate segments and said the city surveyed 30 segments and logged 16 resident service requests during the process.

The decision matters because restriping is intended to restore faded lane markings and crosswalks that affect driver guidance, pedestrian safety and bus operations. Hernandez told commissioners that restriping all needed streets exceeds available funding, so staff used a ranking method that weighs roadway classification, traffic volume, pavement condition, safety concerns and cost.

Hernandez presented a staff “top five” list for the year that included South Sanborn Road (Work Street to Fairview Avenue); North Main Street (southbound, West Oven Drive to Navajo Drive); North Main Street (230 feet south of West Lowell Drive); East Asawa Street (Skyway Boulevard to Tampa Street); and Shilling Place (Harkins Road to Eden Street). He told the commission the final number of segments completed will depend on bid results.

Commissioners and public speakers pressed staff on several practical issues: whether the city will contract striping work or perform it in-house (staff said major arterials and collectors require outside contractors while maintenance handles smaller crosswalks and legends); whether striping already worn on streets scheduled for near-term pavement projects will be redone (staff said they try to avoid re-striping streets on a planned pavement schedule); and whether Caltrans-controlled streets are being coordinated with the state agency (staff said they notify Caltrans if a request falls under Caltrans jurisdiction).

Resident Mary Ann Morton urged the commission to address visibility of median dividers and to restore reflectors removed during past street work. “Somewhere along the line when we were redoing some of these streets, those reflectors disappeared and we never put them back on,” she said, citing locations including Williams Road and Alisal Avenue.

Monterey Salinas Transit (MST) representative Michelle Overmyer told the commission MST operates on many of the listed segments and asked staff to avoid narrowing lanes below 11 feet because MST’s buses are 10 feet, 7 inches wide. “Please take that into consideration when you make any recommendations or take actions,” Overmyer said.

Hernandez said the fiscal-year budget figure he referenced is the staff estimate at the start of the work; actual project scope will be set after soliciting bids. He also said staff intends to return to the commission at the end of the fiscal year with a report summarizing completed restriping work.

A motion to adopt the staff recommendation passed on a roll-call vote with all commissioners present voting yes. Staff will proceed to bid the prioritized list and adjust final scopes to fit the awarded contract values; the commission will receive a post-fiscal-year summary of completed restriping.