14 Greater Fallbrook road segments to be resurfaced

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved the advertisement for bid and subsequent award of construction contracts to resurface 98.64 centerline miles of road throughout San Diego County including 14 road segments in Greater Fallbrook.

The supervisors’ 5-0 vote, Dec. 9, authorized the director of the county’s Department of Purchasing and Contracting to take the necessary actions to issue multiple contracts, approved revenue agreements with San Diego Gas & Electric for work involving the undergrounding of utilities in Descanso and Mount Laguna in coordination with road resurfacing, appropriated the revenue from SDG&E, designated the director of the county’s Department of Public Works as the county officer responsible for administering the construction contracts and the agreements with SDG&E and found the resurfacing categorically exempt from California Environmental Quality Act review. The road list includes eight Fallbrook road segments, four Rainbow road segments, one Bonsall street and one Pala road.

Senate Bill 1, which was signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown in April 2017, increased the gas tax by 12 cents a gallon effective November 2017 and increased vehicle registration fees between $25 and $175 based on vehicle value effective spring 2018. The tax increases are expected to provide local governments with an additional $7.5 billion of funding over the next 10 years including $538 million for San Diego County. The county expects to receive $37 million of Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account funding during 2020-2021.

Local governments must submit a list of projects the tax revenue will be funding to the California Transportation Commission. The board of supervisors approved a list April 21, although the California Transportation Commission allows program changes and DPW followed the preliminary list with a thorough design process including in-depth road reviews and consulting with community groups, utilities and other stakeholders. The information collected during the design phase was used to develop the final list.

The undergrounding of utilities in Mount Laguna has been completed, and the agreement with SDG&E for that work reflects the utility’s portion of the cost of the road resurfacing and undergrounding. SDG&E will be undergrounding utilities on Descanso roads for fire safety purposes, and the county’s resurfacing revisions capitalized on that coordination opportunity. The economic decline due to the coronavirus outbreak also reduced the county’s expected revenue; before the shutdown the county had anticipated $42.9 million of fiscal year 2020-2021 funding from the increased taxes. The county’s total road resurfacing budget of $56 million in recent years was reduced to $40 million for 2020-2021.

DPW maintains nearly 2,000 miles of road in unincorporated San Diego County, and road crews inspect the roads and prioritize them for preventative maintenance. DPW utilizes a pavement management system which incorporates field review, resident and community input and mechanical test data collection to determine which roads are most in need of resurfacing. The structural deterioration of pavement is measured visually by assessing the degree and type of cracking, the surface deterioration and surface defects.

The road maintenance program also evaluates the preferred rehabilitation strategy. Asphalt concrete pavement overlays are used for severely degraded roads with extensive cracking or potholes, although if the road has only minor cracking and no significant surface damage a thinner layer of slurry seals may be applied to protect the road. Although some of the roads will have seal treatment with an expected service life of seven to 10 years, all 14 Greater Fallbrook roads will have overlay resurfacing which will have an expected service life of 10 to 15 years.

Fallbrook's road resurfacing will provide overlays for 1.12 miles of Alvarado Street between South Mission Road and Mercedes Road, 0.13 miles of South Brandon Road between Alvarado Street and Elder Street, 0.46 miles of Elder Street between South Mission Road and Brandon Road, 0.13 miles of East Mission Road between Hill Avenue and Main Avenue, 0.52 miles of South Mission Road between Clemmens Lane and Rocky Crest Lane, 0.36 miles of Pankey Road between the north cul-de-sac and the south cul-de-sac, 0.29 miles of Shearer Crossing between Pankey Road and Dulin Road and 0.13 miles of Vine Street between Alvarado Street and Elder Street.

The Rainbow work will resurface 0.06 miles of Eighth Street between Huffstatler Street and Rainbow Valley Boulevard, 0.23 miles of Huffstatler Street between Rainbow Valley Boulevard and First Street, 0.98 miles of Rainbow Valley Boulevard between Chica Road and the Riverside County line and 0.23 miles of Rainbow Valley Boulevard between 100 feet west of Eighth Street and Huffstatler Street.

In Bonsall, the work will resurface 0.99 miles of Mason Road between East Vista Way and the end of the county-maintained road.

Pala Temecula Road will have an overlay for the 2.38-mile portion between Pala Mission Road and Milepost 3.0.

The April list also included 0.93 miles of Live Oak Park Road between Reche Road and Alvarado Street, 0.04 miles of the Live Oak Park connector between Live Oak Park Road and Reche Road and 1.92 miles of Champagne Boulevard between Old Castle Road and Champagne Village Drive. Those three road segments were not in the final list.

The estimated cost of the contract, including contingency, is $33,609,900. Revenue from the SB 1 taxes will provide $25,489,500, the TransNet half-cent sales tax will account for $4,083,000, and the two SDG&E funding agreements will supply $4,037,400.

On a countywide basis the construction is expected to begin in spring 2021 and be complete by the end of 2021.