TITLE
Recommendation to receive a presentation from Public Works regarding the results from the first year of implementation of the City's Residential Street Maintenance Policy.
DISCUSSION
On May 3, 2011, the City Council passed a new street maintenance policy for our residential streets (see Attachment 1). After years of neglecting maintenance, and allowing our streets to deteriorate to the point where repair costs exceed maintenance by 700% to 1300%, we· have recently implemented a citywide policy that incorporates maintenance into our Capital Improvement Program. This more efficient, effective plan will save the city millions of dollars while improving our streets over the long term.
In its first year of implementation, over two miles of residential streets were slurry sealed in District 7 and over five miles Citywide. According to a recent study by the Michigan Department of Transportation, preventive maintenance programs for streets saved $6 for every $1 spent performing preventive maintenance (see Attachment 2). We spent approximately $80,000 per mile for slurry sealing, for a total of $400,000. Thus, this preventive maintenance in FY 12 saved theCitv $720,000 for the ih District and $2.400,000 Citywide in long-run savings.
Several Council Districts have immediately embraced this new maintenance policy by including a slurry seal program in their residential street repair program. Other Council Districts had already queued up streets for repair and were unable to add a maintenance component for the first year. Additionally, one district pursued an alternative program ("cape seal") that offers an intermediate repair option for streets that are too deteriorated for a slurry seal, but do not yet need a traditional repave.
As more Council Districts include slurry sealing in their residential street repair program, the City as a whole will benefit from the additional savings that will accrue and the continued improvement of residential streets over the lon...
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