The city of Sunnyvale’s public works department is boosting funding for sidewalk repair at 800 locations around the city.
Last month the city awarded a contract in the amount of $2,016,879 to JJR Construction Inc. to tackle those 800 locations and make progress in the city’s backlog of 2,120 sidewalks in need of repair.
City staff has stated that the annual funding allotted to the repairs has been $500,000. That number was doubled for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 fiscal years, but it’s still not enough to get all 2,120 sidewalks repaired.
Sidewalks in Sunnyvale often become broken or cracked, and according to an April staff report, the majority of the damage is done by trees and roots. The city is trying a number of different techniques to repair damaged sidewalks, curbs and gutters. These techniques include installing root barriers, building rubberized sidewalks that will have more flexibility and adding structural soil between the tree roots and cement.
Other tactics include removing existing trees and replacing them with mature trees.
“We are looking at different options. Every location is different,” said Manuel Pineda, the director of public works. “You have different widths of trees; you have different types of trees that have grown over a period of time. So we look at each one individually, and we’ve introduced different approaches for different locations to see if we can match each location better.”
The city estimates it will cost $5 million to repair all of the sidewalk locations. From 2010 to 2011 there was a backlog of 819 locations that needed fixing. The number jumped to 1,713 for 2013 to 2014. The report mentions that there is approximately a five-year wait for repairs at some locations.
“Other cities have moved to a model where the resident pays for sidewalk maintenance and repair costs, but Sunnyvale’s council has chosen to continue to pay the full costs,” said Sunnyvale communications officer Jennifer Garnett in an email. “In addition to our other major investments in street paving to maintain our pavement condition index at high levels, we have increased funding for sidewalks over the past two years. We remain committed to keeping sidewalks safe and working on the sidewalk repair issue.”
