Although Temescal was just repaved, one lane buckled. Now it appears the sole remaining downhill lane is starting to have damage, too.
A long-time Marquez Knolls resident wrote Circling the News, “It’s so strange. We have had our streets re-paved, tarred, you name it and they’ve done it [again and again].
The resident said that streets on Lachman, Buenaventura, Las Flores and Charmel Lane seemed fine, but now “there are a dozen huge, monster trucks working on every one of those streets.
“It took me 15 minutes to get from Sunset and Bienvenida to Charmel Lane, which is usually a 5-minute drive even if you slow down for all the ‘humps.’
“When I think of all the streets that are a mess it makes me angry that they keep paving and re-paving our streets,” the reader said. “Can you find out why so much attention, time, money, is spent on our streets?”
Basically, repaving on Los Angeles city streets is done based on the Pavement Critical Index (PCI). The PCI is determined by the Bureau of Street Services (BSS).
According to the BSS, about 69,000 pavement segments were inventoried and entered into a computer database, by an automated van that took digital images of the street surface and lasers to capture roadway roughness. That information is fed into Micro PAVER, which calculates a PCI.
On the Bureau’s web site (streetsla.lacity.org), it explains that 80 percent of all resurfacing dollars are spent on normal resurfacing, and the other 20 percent goes to failed roadways. “These dollars have to be spread over the entire 6500-mile street network system to save as many streets as possible before they fail,” according to BSS.
The BSS site explains “As part of normal maintenance 3-5 years after a street is resurfaced, a slurry seal application is applied to prevent water penetration into the asphalt. This inhibits oxidation of the oils from the pavement, deters asphalt cracking, prevents water from seeping into the sub-base, and extends the serviceable life of the street, thereby reducing the need for repaving.”
By paving select streets, even if they don’t look like they need repair, BSS hopes to preventing them from failing, which ultimately would cost much more to repair.
Temescal Canyon Road had not been resurfaced, so the entire street needed to be scraped and repaved, which started in November 2022—but it is still not fixed, even though the BSS site shows it as completed.
Sunset Boulevard, another evacuation route for residents, also needs to be completely repaved. According to the site, much of its length in Pacific Palisades is rated in poor condition and has not been resurfaced or redone in 25 years.
The BSS assessment notes that there about 1,000 miles of failed streets in Los Angeles and about 3,000 miles require resurfacing. The City gives the overall system a C grade.
To see how your street ranks, click here..
- In the search box in the upper right hand, type: Temescal and Sunset
2. Click on the Table of Contents icon.
3. On the left side of the screen, click on Bureau of Street services for the drop-down menu, and click on pavement conditions.
To see the streets currently listed for repaving or preservation in Pacific Palisades, visit: click here.
This Rec Center parking lot has not been repaved since it was installed in the late 1950s and desperately needs to be redone.
Thanks Sue, have a better understanding of what is needed but still wonder why we get so much attention and Sunset sits there after 25 years??? Sylvia
The recreation area street and the parking condition is a disgrace to the residences and visitors. And so unsafe to for the kids and parents to walk and even drive. Terrible.
Who should we contact to elevate this problem to get more attention.
How about La Cruz between Sunset and Swarthmore? This high traffic volume street has needed repaving for years !!
The same is true in the Highlands. Streets that were done not long ago and look perfect get done again, while parts of Palisades Drive (right lane going down) just as you leave the developed area, as well as parts of Sunset, have sections where you risk loosening your fillings if you don’t change lanes. That makes for very dangerous driving conditions. The PCI modeling is obviously deficient. Crowdsourcing would be much better. They might even be able to get Waze to program it for them to get better info. If we can get real time traffic from crowdsourcing, why not real time info on roads that need work?
Sylvia,
My understanding is it’s money allocated for street repair. It’s more cost efficient to keep a bunch of streets in reasonable repair than having to replace a street like Sunset.
Sue