Politics & Government

City Wraps Street Work, Eyes Big Road Rehab in Spring 2012

Sewer rate hike sparked controversy but allows City Hall to put infrastructure improvements "front and center" for early 2012, city officials say.

The city of Mill Valley wrapped up more than $310,000 worth of road improvements last week when contractors re-striped nearly two dozen stretches of roads that had been repaired and had a slurry seal applied to them.

Russ Eberwein, the city’s senior civil engineer, said the project was slowed by several days of rain in early October but finished on schedule. The project involved applying a slurry seal, which provides a water-resistant coating over existing roads to extend the life of the pavement, on sections of roads all over the city.

That list included Catalpa Avenue, Ethel Avenue, Euterpe Avenue, Fern Avenue, Hill Street, Hillcrest Avenue, Hillside Avenue, LaGoma Street, Lee Street, Lovell Avenue, Magee Avenue, Manor Drive, Manzanita Place, Marsh Drive, Oakdale Avenue, Park Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue, Tamalpais Avenue, Upland Avenue, Valley Circle, Wainwright Place, West Blithedale and Woodbine Drive. In some cases where the road surface was cracked, as on Hillside and Greenwood avenues, contractors sealed the cracks before applying the slurry seal, Eberwein said.

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But while residents and users of those roads have smoother surfaces on which to drive through the coming wet winter, city officials are targeting next spring as the first chance to pay substantial dividends on the .

The rate hike, which increased a year and went , allows the city to do road repairs on streets where sewer repairs are also needed. The new sewer rate is expected to generate $1.5 million a year for capital improvements. City Hall had been reticent to do major road work if those roads would soon need to be ripped up to allow for sewer repairs.

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“Now that we passed those sewer rates and are able to get to this much-needed sewer work, we’ve got a backlog of street work that we’re now able to accomplish,” said Councilwoman Stephanie Moulton-Peters. “We weren’t going to do road repaving if we’d later have to go in and repair the sewers below it, so things were put on hold. But it really is time to turn out attention back to basic infrastructure. That is front and center now.”

City officials are currently in the design phase for the Street and Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation project, with new asphalt being applied to some streets and others receiving a complete reconstruction.

The list of streets is still being determined but is expected to include parts of Buena Vista Ave., Elaine Ave., Hamilton Ave., Locke Lane, Magee Ave., Middle Court, Rose Ave. and Summit Avenue.

In addition, the city plans to repave Edgewood Ave. from Molino Avenue to Marion Avenue in spring 2012, a $400,000 project that includes existing pavement grinding and the construction of an asphalt overlay. The city is awaiting word on a grant to pay for the bulk of the project. Similar work was done on Edgewood between Sequoia Valley Road and Marion Avenue in 2009.


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