With the completion of the current project to overlay 9 more miles of residential streets, Lakewood will have repaved and renewed more than 100 miles of neighborhood streets since May 2000.
Collectively, street projects since 2000 encompass 25 miles of sidewalk repairs, 25 miles of curbs, 25 miles of gutters, and more than 100 miles of residential streets resurfaced.
The city invested $21.7 million in the street and “hardscape” repairs. Local streets, unlike major highways, have no dedicated source of state or federal funding for repairs. The city’s General Fund – from which essential community services come – is the source of funding.
Paving costs recently have risen with the higher cost of petroleum products. Two years ago, the asphalt paving mixture was about $95,000 per mile of residential street. Today, the cost is about $170,000 per mile.
The current repair project, like those before it, begins by preparing the old street surface and laying over it a 1.5-inch blanket of Rubberized Asphalt Hot Mix – a blend that includes pulverized tires. An estimated 450,000 discarded tires were recycled into the 100 miles of residential streets that have been repaved in Lakewood.
Rubberized asphalt means lower maintenance costs in the long run because the mixture is more resistant to cracking and, therefore, lasts longer.
One of the most compelling arguments for using rubberized asphalt is noise reduction. Caltrans studies show that tire-on-pavement noise accounts for nearly 75 percent of the noise generated from streets. Rubberized asphalt reduces noise at the source better than other materials, and research conducted in California and Arizona has shown that street noise can be reduced by as much as 85 percent.
In addition to the 70 percent of residential streets repaved since 2000 (which includes all the residential streets in eastern Lakewood), more than 30 percent of arterial streets and most residential and commercial alleys have also been repaved.
Paving Stats:
§ 100 miles of residential streets repaved since May 2000: $13.7 million
§ 150,000 tons of Asphalt Rubberized Hot Mix used
§ 450,000 passenger car tires recycled
§ 25 miles of sidewalk, curb, and gutter replacement or repair: $8 million
