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Public Works details 2025 pavement work and says $10 million a year is needed to keep up
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Summary
Capital improvements manager Chris Clerks told the advisory committee the 2025 pavement program replaced or repaired hundreds of concrete slabs, expanded targeted joint repairs and asphalt maintenance, and that the city needs roughly $10 million annually to keep pavement assets from degrading faster than staff can repair them.
At the March 18 meeting of the Public Works Advisory Committee, Chris Clerks, the city’s capital improvements manager, reviewed the 2025 pavement program and an update to the city’s pavement manual, saying the city will post the updated manual in April and that the program needs substantially more annual funding to keep pace.
Clerks said the city’s road network is a multi‑hundred‑million‑dollar asset with more than 720 lane miles to maintain. He reported that in 2025 the concrete program touched roughly 90 street sections and replaced just over 1,900 concrete slabs, while targeted joint repairs (partial‑depth repair, PDR) and hot‑applied mastic were used in multiple subdivisions to extend service life. The 2025 asphalt work included mill‑and‑overlay and preventative maintenance treatments on several lanes of older asphalt streets.
The presentation included a description of how the pavement condition index (PCI) data from TransMap (a county‑provided mapping service) has changed since 2019, and how staff cross‑checks PCI with PASER/manual surveys and work‑order records before setting the annual program. Clerks emphasized PCI is a guide, not an absolute: staff also drive candidate wards and review local work orders to confirm priorities.
Clerks said funding remains the central issue. He described the city’s use‑tax revenue that supports pavement spending and reported the program currently uses a mix of local use‑tax and State Revolving Fund (SRF) support, but staff estimate a minimum of about $10,000,000 annually would be required to approach keeping up with pavement deterioration. He added that the city’s contracted unit rate for concrete work this year is roughly $80 per square yard, and unit‑cost inflation reduces the number of slabs the city can afford to replace each year.
Committee members asked technical questions about why some PDR patches fail and about sequencing of work. Clerks replied that contractors must mill or grind out deteriorated material to get a good edge before applying mastic (brands such as Techrete were mentioned), and that the usual sequencing is full removal and replacement first, followed by targeted joint repairs and finally crack sealing as a last seal. He also noted a one‑time $1 million allocation from council for work in Wards 3 and 4 this year that provides extra capacity but does not change the long‑term funding gap.
Clerks told the committee the 2025 manual reflects updated TransMap rating methods and that Saint Charles County’s 2025 PCI update is still expected; staff will compare the new county data against 2019 and 2022 baselines when it is available. He also introduced Rob Kratz as the city’s new street superintendent and said 2026 will be a transition year as some PDR work and other maintenance shifts to public‑works crews.
The manual update presentation and associated slides will be posted publicly when finalized; staff said they will continue to seek additional funding sources and aim to balance contractor production, efficiency, and ward equity when developing future bid packages.
The committee took no formal votes (there was no quorum).
