$3 million dollar project will provide maintenance for about 10% of county roads

Courtesy of Marin County

The Marin County Department of Public Works (DPW) will begin a road sealant project in late summer, conducting preventative maintenance on over 40 miles of roads in unincorporated areas of Marin, which accounts for approximately 10% of the county-maintained road network.

The project will address various roadways in Lucas Valley, Marinwood, Santa Venetia, Greenbrae, Kentfield, Strawberry, Tamalpais, Hicks Valley, Nicasio, Point Reyes, San Geronimo Valley and unincorporated San Rafael. The estimated $3 million project is funded by the County’s Road and Bridge Rehabilitation fund.

Preliminary site work and pavement sealing of non-residential roads is anticipated to begin in early June. The sealing of residential roads is scheduled to start in August and anticipated to be completed by November 2022. However, work may be delayed by wet weather.

Construction is expected to take place from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and will require traffic control measures. This will include lane closures with up to 10-minute delays. Depending on location, work may sometimes need to be done on weekends. There will also be residential road closures of up to seven hours when required on weekdays. The targeted roads will not be worked on simultaneously, but instead will be staggered in strategic groups to complete the work more efficiently.

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For residential areas, schedule information will be provided seven days in advance and again by door hanger 24 hours ahead of any road closures. Roadway signage will be in place 72 hours in advance of any lane closures that will impact traffic.

Some non-residential roads that have tight curves or substantial tree cover, such as Lucas Valley Road from Big Rock to Nicasio, will also require short term road closures. Such situations will be publicized in advance on DPW’s social media profiles, as well as via on-site message boards and letters to directly impacted residents.

Preventative maintenance helps extend the useful life of pavement and can delay when a street needs to be repaved, avoiding expensive and disruptive rehabilitation projects. This proactive approach calls for keeping good roads in good condition, rather than allowing them to fully deteriorate through their lifecycle.

“Deteriorating roadways have become a nationwide challenge and waiting to replace failed pavement results in tremendously expensive and disruptive projects,” said Eric Miller, Assistant Director of DPW. “In Marin, we are focusing on cost-effective, sustainable pavement preservation work to help incrementally improve our overall pavement condition while also striving to keep our maintenance backlog from increasing.”

Relative to major rehabilitation or reconstruction, there are various preservation treatments that can be applied to a road segment quickly and for a fraction of the cost, making them an inherently sustainable activity and a financially responsible option. The work often utilizes low environmental impact treatments to prolong the life of the pavement. Compared to major rehabilitation activities, pavement preservation requires significantly less energy and mined materials, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions over time.

Improving roadway conditions across unincorporated areas of Marin has been an ongoing commitment of the County for years and is one of the top priorities for the Board of Supervisors. Each year, DPW aims to improve a balance of local, arterial and collector roads, approaching the selection strategically with a long-term goal of overall network improvement.

For example, during the 2021 paving season, DPW completed the $1.6 million Lucas Valley Road curve realignment project, a $1.6 million roadway rehabilitation project in northern Marin’s Upper Lucas Valley area, two sets of preventative maintenance projects across unincorporated Marin (one for 19.6 miles and one for 9.5 miles), various roadway improvements in the Loma Verde area of unincorporated Novato, pavement work on Redwood Highway Frontage Road in Strawberry, and extensive repairs to Fairfax Bolinas Road in West Marin. Also, DPW recently completed the $18 million Sir Francis Drake Boulevard rehabilitation project, titled Upgrade The Drake, improving public safety along 2.2 miles of the heavily used roadway for the first time in over 25 years.

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