Transportation

Marin County: plans call for 13% of roads to be improved during fiscal year

Marin roads
County of Marin photo

For the 2022/23 fiscal year, Marin County Public Works will improve 13% of the county-maintained road network, according to officials

During this fiscal year, which is from July 2022 through June 2023, DPW will have spent roughly $12 million on construction and construction management contracts to improve 56.8 miles of road through various pavement preservation and roadway rehabilitation projects. That covers about 13% of the total road miles maintained by the county.

Many factors are considered when selecting roads for each paving season. A major factor is the pavement condition index (PCI), a standardized measure of a given road segment’s quality on a scale of zero to 100. The assessment is conducted by independent engineering consultants through the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Some of the other parameters include economy of scale, design challenges, road usage data for all user groups, opportunities to coordinate with utility companies, candidates for grant funding, projects that can be efficiently combined with other improvements, roads at risk of imminently becoming impassible, and “failed” (per PCI score) roads that are busy bike routes and/or emergency response routes.

In terms of making road improvements, projects become exponentially more disruptive and expensive as the condition of the road deteriorates. A “good” (per PCI score) road generally only requires preventative maintenance to keep it in good standing, whereas a failed road needs full reconstruction, which is costly and time consuming.

The Marin road work is funded by the County’s Road and Bridge Program budget, which comes from three sources: the County’s General Fund; regional tax measure funding; and California Senate Bill 1 funding. 

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