Burbank City Council OKs contract to fix streets

Plans to resurface 96 blocks of residential streets in Burbank are underway, with the Burbank City Council last week unanimously approving a contract to start the $2.7-million project.

The project, part of the city’s residential-street-improvement program, will cover local streets in parts of Burbank’s hillside and adjacent neighborhoods, as well as in the area north of Victory Boulevard between Buena Vista Street to the west, San Fernando Boulevard to the east and Empire Avenue to the north.

The streets to be resurfaced were selected on the basis of results from a survey conducted by a third party in which the city’s streets were graded on a scale of zero to 100.

In 2011, city officials broke up the city into 20 sections and started fixing, by section, the residential streets that scored 55 or below, meaning they were in poor condition.

Since then, city officials have been repairing damaged residential streets in two to four sections each year. At the completion of this project, 60% of the sections will have been addressed.

“We’re beginning to erode the backlog of work,” said City Engineer Sean Corrigan.

The project is slated to start in November, with work expected to be completed in January.

Roughly half of the funds will come from the city’s General Fund, while the rest is reportedly a mixture of Measure R funds, state gas-tax revenues and funds from the city’s capital projects holding account. Measure R, which took effect in July 2009, is a half-cent sales tax for Los Angeles County to finance new transportation projects and programs as well as accelerate those already in the pipeline.

The local project includes the resurfacing of roads, as well as reconstruction of damaged curbs, gutters, sidewalks, driveways and pedestrian ramps, according to a city report.

Workers will use a special blend of asphalt that uses crumb rubber from recycled tires, thus diverting roughly 357,000 discarded tires from landfills, the report states.

The contractor, Oxnard-based Toro Enterprises, will be responsible for giving at least five days’ notice to affected residents, businesses and schools before starting construction in the area.

The city also has a program for addressing major arterials, which are more complicated and expensive to repair, said Public Works Director Bonnie Teaford. For that, the city relies on federal gas-tax revenue, she said, adding that officials began focusing on repairing major streets about a decade ago.

“Our arterials are really our streets in the best shape in Burbank because of that focused effort,” Teaford said.

For a full list of the residential streets that will be repaired as part of this project, visit burbankca.gov/home/showdocument?id=27558.