On September 10, the Bear Valley CSD Board of Directors received the final Pavement Management Report from Infrastructure Management Services (IMS).

Bear Valley Springs Pavement Management Report

The report takes an in-depth look at the current condition of roads in Bear Valley Springs, using a Pavement Condition Index (PCI). The PCI is essentially the health of the road. Roads are examined for things like pavement cracking, rutting, and roughness. Once that data is collected, it is analyzed to give each segment a PCI score between 0 and 100. The higher the score, the better the condition of the road.

The final report found that Bear Valley's roads have an average PCI of 43, which falls in the “marginal” range. The report also put 23% of our roads in the "Good" or "Very Good" category, while 50% are in the "Poor" or "Very Poor" category.

IMS identified three key takeaways from this data:

• The network average pavement condition score falls below the national average currently seen by IMS of 60 to 65, with Bear Valley's average scoring 43.
• The number of streets rated Excellent is below the minimum recommended target of 15% at 0%.
• The backlog amount, which is the total of Very Poor and Poor roads (between a PCI of 0 and 40), is far above the maximum recommended target.

Simply put, roads in Bear Valley Springs are currently missing all three of these key metrics.

Funding Road Improvements

Currently, the CSD has a roads budget of $0.17 million per year. This is based on a Roads Assessment that was implemented in 1996 and hasn’t been changed since. Based on the analysis and projections by IMS, leaving that budget unchanged will lead to continued degradation of our roads, dropping Bear Valley’s average PCI from 44 to 34 within five years.

The Pavement Management Report includes several potential budget options with a variety of outcomes.

For example, raising the budget to $2.08 million would only maintain current PCI conditions, while a more substantial investment, around $3.5 million annually, would be needed to make a significant improvement on road quality. It's important to note that these estimates are based on current market prices. Those prices are expected to increase in future years.

What Comes Next: Roads and Water Planning

The Pavement Management Index provides only part of the information needed to develop a comprehensive road rehabilitation plan. Road conditions are directly affected by the condition of the infrastructure underneath them. For example, if a new road is built over an aging water pipe that later fails, that new road will deteriorate very quickly.

To address this, the Bear Valley CSD is also developing a Water Master Plan. This report will provide important information about the condition of the District’s water system, including its underground pipes. Once this information is available, the CSD will combine it with the data from the Pavement Management Index.

Together, these two sources of information will allow the CSD to develop a prioritization matrix for future infrastructure projects. This will help determine which projects should be addressed first based on both road and water system conditions. For example, a road rated as “Poor” may be prioritized over a road rated as “Very Poor” if the water pipe underneath the “Poor” road is in greater need of replacement.

Coordinating road rehabilitation with water pipe replacement can also reduce costs by allowing both projects to be completed at the same time. This approach will help the CSD make the most effective use of its limited capital improvement funds while addressing the District’s most critical infrastructure needs.