Our 2024 Pavement Rehabilitation progress is underway, and this year marks the third consecutive year of bolstered funding for our city streets.
Thanks to the 5-year Street Repair Program adopted by the City Council in September 2021, Gilroy’s streets citywide are seeing more attention than they’ve had in a very long time.
In 2022 (Year 1), 149 street segments were resurfaced or rehabilitated (about 4 million square feet of roadway)—we even squeezed in resurfacing the Post Office alley! In 2023 (Year 2), 120 street segments were resurfaced or rehabilitated (about 3.3 million square feet of roadway). This year (Year 3), 58 street segments and 2 alley segments are being resurfaced or rehabilitated.
Since adopting this street repair program in 2021, the city council has approved four years of increased investment in our streets over two budget cycles (2022 and 2023; and 2024 and 2025). With many more streets to go, and some in such poor condition that funding to fix them has to be accumulated in pieces from each year’s budget, we need this momentum to continue.
Bottom line: We’re on a roll for better roads!
Also ahead are improvements for the City’s Sidewalk Replacement Program. By state law, property owners are responsible for maintaining the sidewalk, curb and gutter, and parkstrip area, even though these are all public facilities within the city’s right-of-way, and even if damage was caused by trees in the public right-of-way.
The new Sidewalk Replacement Program will eliminate the up-front out-of-pocket costs by the property owner. The city will fund all project repairs using a qualified contractor, then invoice the property owners for only their cost share of the work, which is limited to 50% of the cost of sidewalk repair resulting from a public tree. The city pays the remaining 50%, as well as 100% of repairs to the curb and gutter, pavement repair, and public tree removal and replacement, if necessary.
The city will take the lead on coordinating the project, the bids and the construction. The only work for the property owner is to pay the invoiced payment share. A payment arrangement option is also being considered that would allow property owners to pay over time.
Additional provisions are also being planned to minimize or eliminate the cost share of owner-occupied residences if the owner qualifies for PG&E Care and other public assistance programs.
Identification of the necessary sidewalk repairs will be carried out by city staff in an equitable manner throughout the city, taking into account the existing levels of deficiency, served traffic generators such as schools, reported concerns by community members, and other rating factors.
This process improvement is expected to increase overall efficiency, thereby increasing the amount of work performed annually and bringing us closer and more quickly to our goal for a safely walkable and accessible street system.
Hurray for our streets and sidewalks!
Marie Blankley
Mayor of Gilroy
