\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRichardson City Council is considering a new asphalt overlay program to address long-term street repair in the city.<\/p>\n
Assistant City Manager Charles Goff presented information about a potential asphalt overlay program to council April 20<\/a>, which would address streets in fair condition. However, he recommended that the city wait a few years before considering implementation.<\/p>\n The overview<\/p>\n Asphalt overlay is a method of street rehabilitation that involves applying a new layer of asphalt over existing pavement to extend the life of a street by at least a decade, Goff said.<\/p>\n Richardson conducted a pavement condition assessment in 2020 that classified streets as good, fair or poor, guiding the city\u2019s prioritization of construction projects and determining what kind of work a street receives.<\/p>\n Goff said asphalt overlay could serve as a long-term strategy to address fair streets\u2014streets that need repair work to bring them up to good condition, but don\u2019t need full reconstruction. The pavement assessment found that about 65% of Richardson\u2019s streets fell into the fair category in 2020.<\/p>\n Goff said the city does not recommend asphalt overlay for good streets, which require more minor preventative maintenance, or for poor streets, which need more intensive structural repair.<\/p>\n Richardson currently invests in localized concrete replacement to improve fair streets, a short-term fix that replaces one or two panels of concrete at a time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty clear that asphalt does extend the life of concrete pavement,\u201d Goff said. \u201cThe question is whether it\u2019s a cost-effective way of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n Breaking it down<\/p>\n While asphalt overlay would require a more substantial investment up front, Goff said, it could prevent additional repair costs in the long term.<\/p>\n To make the investment worth it, Goff said the cost of the asphalt overlay, which would ideally last at least a decade, would need to be less than the potential costs of repeated concrete panel maintenance over the same time period.<\/p>\n Goff said the program wouldn\u2019t make financial sense for all streets in fair condition. For example, the ongoing construction project on Renner Road is replacing nearly 5 miles of concrete panels and costs about $550,000, Goff said. Asphalt overlay on the same area would cost between $2.5 million and $5.4 million, which Goff said is much more than the anticipated cost of concrete panel replacement needs on Renner over the next decade.<\/p>\n Targeted asphalt overlay could still be a cost-effective option for other fair streets in Richardson, Goff said, but it would require more street maintenance funding than the city typically allocates.<\/p>\n Put in perspective<\/p>\n City Manager Don Magner said 80% of Richardson\u2019s streets are 40 years or older, requiring sustained investment to prevent the city from falling behind on repairs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this [concrete replacement] program for 10 years now,\u201d Magner said. \u201cAnd when I\u2019m asked if we\u2019re catching up, I say, \u2018No, we\u2019re just not falling behind.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n