The Turlock City Council on Tuesday moved forward with an agreement which will see work on 15 different residential roads begin this summer, about half of which will be completed this year. 

In a 4-1 vote, with Councilmember Andrew Nosrati dissenting, Council appropriated $1,548,106 of Measure A money to provide funding for the design of 15 roads projects by Michael Baker International.

The Council also gave the go-ahead to advertise for the construction of the projects. While construction on the roads is set to begin in July, seven roads will be completed this year while the remaining eight, including two which require more work than the others, will be completed next year. 

When it comes to the actual construction of the projects, Councilmember Nicole Larson motioned that they be sent out to bid, which was seconded by Nosrati but ultimately failed. Nosrati elected to vote "no" on the agreement due to concerns about the lack of internal review of the projects, the cost of the projects and questions about traffic safety measures along the newly-paved roads. 

"I believe we need to be designing our streets not for the convenience of cars, but for the safety of our people," he said. 

In November, MBI was chosen by Council to perform professional planning and preliminary design services for the City of Turlock’s Roads Initiative Program, which aims to rehabilitate Turlock's 428 lane miles of roads. Turlock’s roadways currently have a pavement condition index of 55 out of 100, which will be improved upon over the course of the next five years by allocating 50% of Measure A funding for the cause. 

An estimated total of $5.5 million will go towards road projects annually, increasing the City’s existing road funding by 100%. 

Included in the agreement with MBI was the identification of up to 15 streets which could be easily repaired during the 2022 construction season, and an initial list presented in September was refined by the consulting agency using data collected by their LiDAR trucks. 

The 15 roads which will be paved first are: 

·         20th Century Boulevard, East of Golden State Boulevard to Geer Road

·         Carrigan Street, North Johnson Road to North Quincy Road

·         Corrello Street, Sierra Vista Drive to Marlee Drive

·         Delbon Avenue, North Olive Avenue to Colorado Avenue

·         East Avenue, Golden State Boulevard to Daubenberger Road 

·         Flower Street, North Soderquist Road to North 1st Street

·         Fosberg Road, East Monte Vista Avenue to East Christoffersen Parkway

·         Julian Street, North Soderquist Road to North 1st Street

·         Locust Street, Vermont Avenue to West Main Street

·         Mira Flores Drive, El Paseo Street to Murphy Drive

·         North Orange Street, West Main Street to Flower Street

·         Old Vineyard Road, East Marshall Street to East Canal Drive

·         Park Street, North Soderquist Road to North 1st Street

·         Spruce Street, South Avenue to High Street

·         Wayside Drive, Geer Road to Pioneer Avenue

With the exception of Wayside Drive and Fosberg Road, the 13 other stretches of road are classified by MBI as Package I projects, meaning they will be fixed using the grind and overlay process. The remaining two roads are Package II projects, requiring complete construction and an extended design/construction schedule. Construction on those two roads will begin later than the others because of their complexity. 

Originally, all 15 roads selected were supposed to be completed this year. Once MBI saw the condition of the roads, however, the agency knew it wouldn’t be possible due to not only deteriorating asphalt, but ADA issues as well.

“We found that these streets were going to take longer than we thought because the concrete work itself is going to take several weeks, if not months, on some of these streets,” said Jim Porter of MBI. “With the [Package II projects], those two streets were not streets that we had chosen, but streets that the City wanted us to complete. And we knew that those two streets could not be done this year; there’s too much work to be done.”

Roads which are scheduled to be completed by the end of the year are Delbon Avenue, Carrigan Street, Old Vineyard Road, Corello Street, Spruce Street, North Orange Street and Locust Street.