Fountain Hills street pavement conditions continue to get worse in spite of the Town’s efforts to find funding for upkeep and maintenance. That is a preliminary conclusion from a 13-member citizen committee charged with making a recommendation to the Town Council on how to proceed with a pavement management plan.

Jerry Butler, a member of the committee and retired engineer, presented to the council at its Oct. 18 meeting. Butler praised staff and the council for doing the best job it can with the limited resources it has, but he stated that is inadequate to keep up with the street maintenance backlog.

The conclusion of the committee at this time is that “the existing $2.5 million annual budget for pavement maintenance is insufficient.

“While the additional $8 million in one-time funding [from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)] helps to a degree, it will not adequately address the mid- to long-term needs of the community.”

Butler went on to outline the current situation with a presentation the council has heard many times previously over the past decade or longer. In 2011 Town staff prepared a $30 million bond proposal that was intended to address immediate needs as well as maintenance needs for years into the future. That bond was rejected by voters at the polls. A later bond for $8.2 million for paving just Saguaro Boulevard and parts of Shea Boulevard was approved by voters in 2013 and the work completed in 2015. That bond has been paid off.

Subsequently the Town engaged a consultant to evaluate the pavement condition of all streets in Fountain Hills. That report created a spreadsheet in 2017.

Butler covered that report in his presentation to the council along with comparisons to estimates of the pavement conditions in 2022.

The arterial streets that include Shea and Saguaro as well as Palisades boulevards are still in fairly good condition. The evaluation uses a grading system similar to school grades, with A being the best and F failing. The arterial streets with an A grade in 2017 (29%) have fallen off by 10% (19.1%) in 2022. The B grade for arterials remains fairly stable, 34.7% in 2017 and 33.3% in 2022. It is the D and F categories where some concern is reflected. The D grade jumped from 14.1% in 2017 to 21.9% in 2022. While no arterial streets received an F grade in 2017, the number is now estimated to be 7%. This reflects an estimated 30% of the arterial streets with a D or F grade in 2022.

The news does not get better with other street designations. The collector streets such as Kingstree, El Lago and Golden Eagle boulevards are estimated at 34% with an A or B in 2022 (down from 40% in 2017), while 45% are in the D and F category (up from 37% in 2017).

There is some improvement with local neighborhood streets, but overall it is still not good. In 2017 about 15% of the streets were rated as A or B. That has improved significantly, with the estimate for 2022 at about 40%. There were 67.5% of the streets ranked as D or F in 2017. That estimate for 2022 is 52%.

A little perspective on these numbers is provided when considering the amount of pavement being considered. The 2017 pavement study included 3.6 million square yards of pavement. There are 30,000 total entries for the street segments categorized into letter grades.

Along with the presentation, the committee made a recommendation that the council approve a contract with Roadway Asset Service, LLC for pavement condition and evaluation-related services. The contact for $59,997 would update the pavement evaluations done previously to provide new numbers to work with. The council approved that agreement.

The proposed schedule included with the contractor’s report to the council indicates they expect to complete the work by the end of March 2023.

The committee is recommending pavement evaluations be conducted on a five- to seven-year schedule. The last one being done in 2017, this year fits within that time frame. A 2007 study, prior to the major bond proposal, was not followed up until 2017. The previous studies were conducted by a different consulting company.