Lacey streets are in good condition, but upkeep costs rising, says manager

In 2023, 96.4%, or over 90%, of Lacey's streets were in “good” or “very good” condition, Brian Petrin, City of Lacey Transportation Engineer, reported at the council work session on Tuesday.

Petrin, the city's pavement manager, said Lacey's street network currently consists of 181.3 centerline miles of roadway within city limits, including 34.8 miles of arterial streets, 24.4 centerline of collector streets, and 122.1 centerline miles of residential streets.

Petrin stated that 96.4% of these miles are in very good or good condition, while 3.6% are in fair and poor condition.

A chart was presented showing Lacey's pavement condition over time. According to Petrin, the overall Pavement Condition Index (PCI) score for the road network is 84.4, slightly increasing from 83.3 in the 2021 Street Report. 

The city's current pavement conditions are 84.4 Pavement Condition Index (PCI) score, slightly increasing from an overall score of 83.3 PCI in the …

Petrin explained that Lacey's funding or treatment programs have helped improve the pavement's condition. He noted that the additional new streets initially came in with a PCI score of 100, which boosted the overall number.

In 2022, Petrin stated that Lacey annexed an area near Lake Lois, adding several new streets to the city's street network inventory. These included sections of Pacific Avenue, Carpenter Road, 6th at Lake Lois Street, and portions classified as civic arterials, collectors, and residential streets.

Petrin noted that the average PCI of these additional streets was 77.9. That increased the city's street network by approximately 4.46 lane miles.

Maintenance and upkeep

Lacey City Engineer Aubrey Collier presented the city's street conditions, which he claimed over 96.4% miles in good condition, at the city council …

Petrin said the new developments in the city helped increase the pavement condition scores of the street network. However, he cautioned that 20 to 30 years down the road, if these new streets are not properly maintained, the additions could burden the network instead of continuing to boost scores.

Petrin mentioned Nisqually Place, Bradley Park, and Nouvelle Court as examples of new developments, which increased Lacey's street network by 1.8 lane miles.

Petrin said the city’s PCI is at 100 with the new roads.

"We do road maintenance, especially with the [Transportation Benefit District (TBD)]. We want to keep our roads in good shape. It is cheaper to maintain good roads," Petrin emphasized.

Collier highlighted recent overlay and repair projects for 15.06 lane miles. Upcoming works include nine rehabilitation projects, such as Yelm Highway SE, Compton Boulevard SE, and Classic Heights Neighborhood, and preventative maintenance, including a yearly crack seal program and the reintroduction of a slurry seal program.

Petrin stressed the importance of preventative maintenance like crack sealing and surface treatments to less expensive repairs down the road. Continued funding will be needed to rehabilitate aging infrastructure and address the growing backlog of roads needing work.

Petrin also presented four funding scenarios using Streetsaver analysis:

In the $0 annual funding scenario, the projection showed Lacey's street network PCI would severely decline to 71 within ten years. Collier also noted that going unfunded would result in deferring about $90 million in needed maintenance costs over that period.

Maintaining the current funding level of $3.5 million per year from the TBD sales tax would result in a PCI of 82 within ten years.

Maintaining the PCI at its current level would require $4.6 million annually.

Unlimited "unconstrained" funding to keep all streets above 80 PCI was estimated at $6.2 million annually.

In July 2017, the city began collecting revenues generated by TBD sales tax.

If they would ask the community to continue supporting the TBD, Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder said the council would need to clearly explain the process and importance of specific projects and present outcomes of completed work funded by the TBD.

Councilmember Robin Vazquez wants the council to analyze and decide which street projects received TBD funding.

Lacey evaluates the pavement conditions of the city's streets biennially.

RCW 47.04.125 requires the city to collect pavement condition rating surveys. The pavement condition ratings summarized in the State of the Streets Reports are used to prioritize and select overlay projects that the TBD funds.

Editors' Note: A previous version of this article named City Engineer Aubrey Collier the main speaker in the meeting. The JOLT apologizes for this error.