Santa Barbara City Council approved a $2.1 million contract Tuesday with American Asphalt South Inc. for a pavement maintenance project.
The fiscal year 2022A Pavement Maintenance Project includes micro-milling and crack and slurry sealing of city streets and the Chase Palm Park parking lot at the waterfront — some of the highest priority paving maintenance needs throughout Santa Barbara, according to a staff report.
American Asphalt, from Riverside, had the lowest of four bids under consideration.
The council unanimously approved the contract award at its weekly meeting.
Additionally, the city council authorized the Public Works Department to execute contracts with Flowers & Associates Inc. for construction support services for the 2022A Pavement Maintenance Project and design services for fiscal year 2023.
The maintenance work is expected to occur from June to November.
Jim Dewey, the streets operations and infrastructure manager, said the goal is to get “timely information” to the public, particularly through a web service, on projects.
In all, Santa Barbara has 145 miles of streets to maintain, according to Mr. Dewey, as well as 268 miles of sides and related infrastructures, such as gutters and curbs.
In the past three years, the city has been able to maintain (through treatments or asphalt overlays) 314 city blocks and replaced or added nearly 186,000 square feet of sidewalk, according to a presentation given to the council Tuesday.
Mr. Dewey said Santa Barbara’s own pavement maintenance crew is handling two-thirds of the overall pavement program — something that has a cost advantage over hiring contractor services. Contractors are still needed, however, for “more complicated projects,” such as slurry sealing and other services needing civil engineering, he said.
email: kschallhorn@newspress.com
