Streets director warns Redding’s pavement condition is deteriorating; proposes $8.5–$10M/year to avoid reconstruction cliff

Public Works Director Michael Webb presented a detailed streets update — inventorying assets, funding sources and pavement condition — and urged the council to consider increased annual capital investment to avoid a network-wide deterioration that would require more expensive reconstruction.

Webb said the streets program is responsible for roughly 940 lane miles of pavement, 118 bridges and 570 miles of sidewalk. He reported revenues in the street-special columns near $12.3M per year (varies by year and funding source), and explained the carryover situation: the department expects approximately $10.1M of carryover from FY25 into FY26 tied to roughly 20 projects where work is in process or invoices are outstanding.

Turning to condition assessments, Webb said the city collects PCI data on every lane mile annually and gave visual examples that ranged from PCI 93 (Bocelli Lane) down to PCI 20 (Butte Street). "If we continue on our current capital trajectory of approximately $5 million per year, our network PCI will continue to deteriorate and we risk falling off the rehabilitation cliff," Webb said. He and staff estimated that an annual program in the order of $8.5–$10 million per year (in today's dollars) would move the network toward a PCI in the mid‑70s and shift work from reconstruction toward preventive maintenance.

Council followed with operational and funding questions: timing of reimbursements for reimbursable grants (RSTP/RSTP-like funds), how carryovers accumulate from multi-year capital projects, and whether shifting O&M funds to capital would be prudent. Webb said he would prefer not to supplant day-to-day maintenance (potholes, crack sealing) and noted project bid timing and escalation risks.