SEAL BEACH : City Begins Downtown Street Resurfacing

The first major street resurfacing project in the downtown area in at least a decade began Wednesday on streets hit hard by last winter’s torrential rains.

But efforts to win federal funding to upgrade the city’s flood control system have stalled.

The Jan. 4 rainstorm caused about $5 million in damage to the city, including $3 million at Leisure World, where 300 residents were evacuated after a nearby flood control channel overflowed.

City officials have applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for funds to revamp the city’s overloaded flood control system. Downtown-area residents have long complained of routine flooding during heavy rain.

But Councilman George Brown said there are indications that the city’s request may be turned down.

Road resurfacing on Electric Avenue and Main, 5th and 12th streets is expected to be completed on Friday, with striping to be done next week. The $109,000 project is expected to prevent the need for more serious repairs in the future.

“Water has a way of accelerating the wear process of asphalt,” said Steve Badum, director of public works and city engineer. “To the naked eye, the roads don’t look that bad. But once a road starts getting really bad, the price to repair it escalates exponentially.”

Some streets in the city are in worse condition than those being repaired downtown, Badum said, but they have deteriorated to a point that total repair is necessary.

The cost of providing a one-inch “overlay” of asphalt is about $1 a square foot, Badum said, compared to $5 a square foot for street surface replacement.