Improving, Maintaining Streets Following an Intense Winter

Traffic, road conditions, street maintenance and construction are generally areas of great interest for our citizens. With more than 750 miles of paved surface in the city boundaries, improving and maintaining our streets in Prescott is a year-round job. Keeping traffic flowing smoothly and safely is another priority that requires constant attention and improvement.

Spring is here and the city is gearing up for road construction and street maintenance projects. This past winter was very hard on our roads. Numerous snowstorms kept the plows rolling more than usual. Plows and the freeze/thaw cycle added to the emergence of potholes around town. Prescott has streets in various configurations and levels of use. Keeping our streets in good condition is the job of the Public Works Department. The systematic approach to determine the type and priority of road maintenance is lifecycle pavement management. There is a methodology to prioritizing street projects for the maximum cost-benefit of our allocated budget.

Pavement conditions are ranked on a scale of 0-100, commonly referred as a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) based on information obtained from a third-party consultant who drives and analyzes the city’s entire network. Staff will also validate the consultant report and assess the prioritization of recommended pavement treatments for the conditions of a particular road.

• The three types of pavement maintenance are preservation, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
• Roads in the 70-100 range (Very Good – Excellent) will receive preservation treatments, which include rejuvenating fog seals, master seals and slurry seals. These are very cost-effective treatments to prolong pavement life.
• Roads in the 40-70 range (Marginal – Good) will receive rehabilitation treatments, which will include high and low volume chip seals, micro seals and mill and overlays.
• Roads in the 0-40 range (Very Poor – Poor) will typically require full pavement reconstruction, which includes the full removal and replacement of existing pavement and the base structure.

In the past few years, the city has made major budget commitments to improving our city streets and roads. The overall conditions of our city streets have improved from an average PCI of 49, to the current 67 rating.

The city is catching up on a number of projects on both arterial and residential streets. Here are some important projects we can expect to be addressed this year:

• Prescott Lakes Parkway from Willow Lake Road to SR89 – Pavement repairs and Micro Seal Type III application.
• Willow Creek Road from Green Lane to Willow Lake Road – Rejuvenating Fog Seal and Crack Seal.
• Stetson Road from Robinson Dr. to Bradshaw Dr. – Full depth pavement replacement.
• Garden St. and Western Ave. – Full depth pavement replacement (project also includes sewer main replacement).

For exact dates and times, sign up for email alerts here: news@prescottutilityimprovements.com.

Also, you can call the project hotline at 928-237-3114.

Traffic flow remains a high priority as our population grows. There are several projects planned for the upcoming calendar year to help staff and city leadership monitor traffic conditions and plan for needed traffic improvements.

At the direction of Prescott City Council, Public Works staff is currently developing the scope and final details for a Citywide Speed and Travel Time Study. This study will be conducted to collect and analyze existing speed and travel time data on all arterial and select collector and local streets within the City of Prescott to provide an objective evaluation of our current conditions and to ultimately identify roadways that are experiencing ongoing speeding issues and/or poor travel times so that mitigation measures and improvement projects can be identified and implemented. This study will also grade our system against known standards related to speeding and roadway operations so that we can have a true understanding of how our roadways are doing and how they can improve.

In addition to this, the city will be conducting traffic count data collection in late spring. This involves collecting 24-hour traffic volume counts and intersection peak hour turning counts at various arterial and collector roadways and major intersections. This data will be used to determine traffic growth rates, analyze crash rates at intersections and be made available to realtors and businesses to understand traffic patterns and volumes at specific locations.

Maintaining our streets and keeping traffic moving safely are core functions of our city. We will continue to work to improve and maintain our streets, so that citizens can travel in a safe, efficient manner around our city. QCBN

By Phil Goode

Phil Goode is the mayor of Prescott.