To: Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): Sonoma County Public Infrastructure
Staff Name and Phone Number: Johannes J. Hoevertsz, 707-565-2550
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): First and Fourth
Title:
Title
2026 and 2027 Pavement Preservation Program Road List Changes
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Approve a modified List of Projects for FY 2025-26 and 2026-27 Pavement Preservation Program (PPP).
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Executive Summary:
On June 3, 2025, the Board approved the FY 2025-26 and 2026-27 Pavement Preservation Program (PPP) acknowledging there may be minor changes to road segments and/or treatment options after consultation with Board staff and County residents. After consultation with stakeholder groups, Sonoma County Public Infrastructure (SPI) is bringing recommended changes to the FY 2025-26 and 2026-27 project list back to the Board for approval.
Discussion:
Beginning in 2012 the Board of Supervisors began allocating money from the County’s General Fund for maintenance and repair of county roads. This allocation was in addition to established Maintenance of Effort contributions the County was obligated to make for eligibility to receive annual apportionments of State gas taxes.
Formalized in 2014 with the adoption of a Long-Term Road Plan the Board committed to continuing its annual General Fund investment by allocating $8 million in General Fund contributions for pavement preservation annually. In FY 2015-16 the Board increased the General Fund allocation to $9 million annually, authorized $375,000 in Aggregate Road Mitigation (ARM) Fees annually for the program, and committed an $2.2 million in Refuse Franchise Fees each year. In 2015, the Board identified additional one-time monies from a combination of discretionary sources totaling $10.6 million for the summer 2017 Program and directed that the $9 million pavement preservation General Fund contribution be indexed by up to 2% annually beginning in FY 2016-17. In addition, in FY 2017-18 the Board directed 20% of revenue from the County’s Transit Occupancy Tax (Measure L) to be allocated to the Program each year. Finally, the indexing rate was increased by the Board to 5% annually beginning in FY 2023-24. In addition to General Fund contributions, Sonoma County Public Infrastructure (SPI) allocates a portion of State gas tax revenue to the Program each year. The plan and funding sources are now collectively referred to as the Pavement Preservation Program (PPP).
On June 3, 2025, the Board approved funding for the FY 2025-26 and 2026-27 PPP and associated project lists. The projects recommended for the FY 2025-26 and 2026-27 PPP were developed using the Road Evaluation Framework (attached as Exhibit A) in the Long-Term Roads Plan. The Road Evaluation Framework does not prescribe specific roads or set a target, rather it helps ensure an equitable distribution of repair work throughout the County, prioritizes the most critical road repair needs, and focuses resources on pavement preservation to ensure the most efficient use of funds. The Roads Evaluation Framework consists of a series of key roadway attributes that SPI has used to identify candidate roads such as: average daily traffic, current pavement condition, relevance to bike and bus modes of travel, and road location relevant to public safety facilities. Given the large backlog of pavement repair needs and the fact that there is insufficient funding to address the entire system, the Department generally recommends a continued focus on those roads that serve the most residents. For this reason, prior year program roads were selected primarily from the Federally Eligible and Significant Rural Road Network categories within the Framework which generally have the highest usage.
Since approval of the FY2025-26 and 2026-27 PPP by the Board, SPI staff meetings with District staff and County residents resulted in requests for targeted modification to the approved 2-year plan. The original two-year plan included forty roads. Of those roads, twenty-four of the roads had a pavement condition index (PCI) category of very poor, three roads had a PCI of poor, eleven roads had a PCI of good, and two roads had a PCI of very good. Five of the roads in the project list are along existing bus routes and twelve of the roads are part of the Sonoma County Bike and Pedestrian plan.
The proposed modified two-year plan includes forty-two roads, increasing the number of roads being paved that have a PCI of very poor from twenty-four to twenty-six. There are no changes to the number of roads with a PCI of poor, good, or very good. In addition, the proposed modified plan adds one additional road along an existing bus route and one additional road identified in the Sonoma County Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. If approved, the modified plan will not result in any changes in funding allocations approved by the Board on June 3, 2025. However, if funding is available within the program, SPI may include improvements on adjacent roadways to maximize impact of the program funding. In total, the modified two-year Pavement Preservation Program would repair or replace approximately 39.48 miles of arterial, major and minor collector, and local roads countywide, a slight reduction from the 43.29 miles included in the original plan approved in 2025.
Revisions to the plan adjust paving quantities on select roads: paving is reduced on Bennett Valley Road and eliminated on Old Redwood Highway (with dig-out and pedestrian improvements added), while paving is added on Mill Creek Road and Sonoma Mountain Road. Roads with a PCI of good were selected because early treatment provides a better return on investment than deferring repairs until conditions deteriorate further. Roads with a PCI category of very good were selected as they are critical thoroughfares that must be maintained in very good condition.
One of the primary tools currently used in the Road Evaluation Framework, is Street Saver® pavement maintenance and management modeling software. Engineering staff at SPI combine this data with real world observations to develop a geographically equitable list of final projects. A significant amount of engineering judgment is required to develop this list as well as determine the appropriate treatment for each project. Exhibit B shows how all the recommended projects in the modified 2-Year PPP fit into the Road Evaluation Framework.
SPI requests the Board approve the modified project lists in Exhibit C, the map of the modified project locations and Exhibit D, the modified list of the proposed projects with projected construction costs. All treatment types are preliminary until verified through detailed material testing and design. Program estimates are based on the currently available identified treatment strategy, and average costs experienced in recent bids.
Strategic Plan:
This item directly supports the County’s Five-year Strategic Plan and is aligned with the following pillar, goal, and objective.
Pillar: Resilient Infrastructure
Goal: Goal 3: Continue to invest in critical road, bridge, bicycle, and pedestrian infrastructure.
Objective: Objective 1: Continue to maintain road segments, including designated turnouts where feasible, increase efforts on vegetation removal and drainage features, and improve pavement conditions in neighborhoods.
Racial Equity:
Was this item identified as an opportunity to apply the Racial Equity Toolkit?
No
Prior Board Actions:
6/3/2025 Board Approved 2026 and 2027 Pavement Preservation Program Funding and List of Projects
4/18/2023 Board Approved 2025 and 2025 Pavement Preservation Program Funding and List of Projects
1/4/2022 Board Presentation on the accomplishments of the Pavement Preservation Program
5/25/2021 Board approved Allocation of Pacific Gas and Electric Settlement Funds for Transportation, Utilities Undergrounding, Communications, Safety, and Preparedness Infrastructure Investments.
5/21/2019 Board approved 2-year 2019/2020 Pavement Preservation Program
9/26/2017 Board approved 2-year 2018/2019 Pavement Preservation Program
6/14/2016 Board approved 2017 Pavement Preservation Program of Projects
3/17/2015 Board approved the 2015 and 2016 Pavement Program of projects
10/28/2014 Board adopted the Long-Term Road Plan report
Fiscal Summary
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
There is no direct fiscal impact associated with this Board item, as there are no changes to the funding sources or expenditure amounts approved by the Board on June 3, 2025. Revenue and expenditure appropriations for the PPP are included in the Roads Recommended budget each year.
Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
None.
Attachments:
Exhibit A: Updated Long Term Road Plan Evaluation Framework
Exhibit B: Evaluation Framework for the Modified Pavement Preservation Program
Exhibit C: Map of Modified 2-Year Pavement Preservation Program
Exhibit D: List of the Modified 2-Year Pavement Preservation Program Recommended Roads
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
None.