Raytown staff urges $5 million annual street-maintenance target to stop widening deterioration

City engineering consultants and public-works staff told the Raytown Board of Aldermen on Feb. 18 that the city’s streets are deteriorating faster than current maintenance dollars can repair and that a larger recurring budget is the most cost-effective way to stabilize conditions.

Greg Van Patten, a project manager with Lampard Nearson, explained the pavement-condition index (PCI) framework and the lifecycle of common treatments. Van Patten said Raytown’s network PCI was 45.3 based on a 2018 survey and described three tiers of interventions — crack sealing, surface treatments such as MAQS and UBAS, and full mill-and-overlay or reconstruction — that are selected depending on a segment’s PCI and underlying base failures. “If you let your street fall down into the very poor condition and then attempt to surface treat it without base repairs, it’s going to come back down quickly,” Van Patten said.

Van Patten recommended a target maintenance budget of $5,000,000 per year (including soft costs) that would allow the city to treat roughly 8–12% of lane miles annually — a pace he said is needed to swing the network toward a higher overall PCI and reduce long-term reconstruction costs. He contrasted that with Raytown’s current maintenance spending of about $1,000,000 per year, which he said covers roughly 3.5% of the network and is insufficient to prevent more costly failures later. Van Patten added the $5 million estimate includes an allowance for an estimated 10% curb replacement within treated corridors.

The presentation included technical estimates for treatment lifespans: MAQS (micro-surface/pressure pave) at roughly $6.80 per square yard with a 5–8 year life, UBAS (ultra-thin bonded asphalt) at about $10 per square yard with an expected 10+ year life, and mill-and-overlay at about $15 per square yard with a 12+ year life. Van Patten noted that maintenance frequency, material life and unit costs depend on what is beneath the pavement and local traffic and weather conditions.

Council members pressed staff on sequencing and financing. Alderman Greg Walters and others asked whether the city keeps a list of streets that now require full reconstruction versus surface treatment. Van Patten said segments with more than roughly 20% base repair needs are often cheaper to reconstruct than to repair piecemeal and recommended repeating PCI inspections every 3–5 years to refine priorities. Several aldermen noted a previously proposed bond that failed; staff said such capital financing would have paid for additional reconstruction but that the city must plan within available annual maintenance funds while seeking other funding sources.

Van Patten described the near-term project schedule: continue the current Raytown Road collector work in 2025, prep residential sections in 2026 with base repairs and crack sealing, surface those sections in 2027, and alternate collector and residential work through 2030 to expand annual coverage. The consultant estimated the city’s network lane miles at approximately 311 and emphasized that small, regular treatments on that network are cheaper than delayed large reconstructions.

The presentation concluded with staff encouragement to pursue additional funding where possible but emphasized that even incremental increases in annual maintenance will reduce future costs. Van Patten closed by urging the council to adopt regular pavement inspections as a planning tool to tailor the deterioration curve to Raytown’s network.

The board did not take a vote on the $5 million target at the meeting; the presentation served as direction and context for future budget discussions.