The City of San Diego in California has developed a data-driven strategy to manage roads and pedestrian walkways following a city-wide scanning with lasers and other sensors. The Pavement Management Plan includes a five-year plan that identifies specific streets and road repair that will be conducted citywide if funding is identified.

With a network of paved roads, alleyways and unimproved streets, the City of San Diego maintains more than 6,600 lane miles of roadway and has the second largest street network in California.

The comprehensive condition assessment included every paved street segment in the City of San Diego. The assessment underpins the city’s new Pavement Management Plan which outlines a data-driven strategy for pavement management across the city. The plan also identifies where long-term investment should be directed to maintain and improve San Diego’s vast network of roads.

The five-year plan is incorporated into StreetsSD, an interactive webpage that allows San Diegans to see ongoing and future paving projects in their neighbourhoods, and to search information about individual streets.

The City first unveiled the Pavement Management Plan in January along with the results of the condition assessment, known as a Pavement Condition Index (PCI), in which the City scored 63 points, putting San Diego’s overall road network in the “Fair” category. PCI scores range from zero to 100 with a target network average of 70 being the industry standard.

During the data-gathering process, every mile of San Diego’s paved roadways was analysed by lasers and other tools to measure pavement surface distress, such as cracks and potholes. The City had performed its last road condition assessment in 2016, resulting in a PCI score of 71.

“This crucial data gives us what we need to make informed strategic investments in our roads and the long-term plan on how to do that,” said Mayor Todd Gloria. “What the Pavement Management Plan reveals is the need for major funding to reverse decades of neglect that allowed our street network to fall into serious disrepair. That’s the work that lies ahead.” 

“Having this condition assessment data is crucial for our operations so that our team can be more strategic and cost-effective in allocating limited resources for road repair and maintenance,” said Bethany Bezak, Transportation Department Director. “What the Pavement Management Plan shows is that a significant investment is needed over the long term in order to prevent further deterioration of our roads and to bring San Diego’s PCI score closer to the industry standard where our residents expect us to be as the eighth largest city in the United States.”   

In the FY24 budget, Mayor Gloria committed a record $140 million investment to repair City streets by focusing on repairing San Diego’s high-volume roadways.