San Rafael, CA – Seven roads in southern Marin will be repaved as part of the Marin County Department of Public Works’ (DPW) summer paving program. The roads are in the unincorporated area of Homestead Valley, and the improvements will cost an estimated $2.1 million. The project is expected to begin in early August and take through the end of October.
Melrose Avenue to be repaved from Montford Avenue to Laverne Avenue.
A total of 2.7 miles of roadway will be addressed on Cleveland Avenue, Hawthorn Avenue, Lattie Lane, Laverne Avenue, Melrose Avenue, Reed Street and Scott Street. The roads will be repaved from beginning to end, except for Melrose Avenue which will be repaved from Montford Avenue to Laverne Avenue. While all streets will be worked on concurrently, Melrose Avenue will be focused on first to be completed before the start of Marin Horizon School academic year.
The roads will receive full-width grinding of the old pavement, allowing for base failures to be repaired and specially engineered paving mats to be installed underneath the new pavement, thereby increasing the longevity. Drainage improvements will be implemented as well, and pavement markings and traffic striping will be upgraded to meet safety standards.
Construction will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The work will require temporary periods of single-lane access, during which the traffic flow will be controlled by flaggers. However, some sections of the roads are too narrow to accommodate construction equipment and single-lane traffic at the same time. Those locations will require intermittent road closures to finalize the repaving process. Before these temporary closures, every effort will be made to provide notice and minimize the inconvenience for residents in the vicinity.
Funding for the planned improvements will be covered by Measures A/AA/B via the Transportation Authority of Marin, as well as the County’s Road and Bridge Rehabilitation Program fund. Improving roadway conditions across unincorporated areas of Marin is an ongoing commitment of the County and one of the top priorities for the Board of Supervisors. This goal was further underlined by the 2018 countywide Resident Survey, in which 91 percent of the community identified infrastructure improvements, including road work, as their top priority.
Which roads get addressed during any given paving season is based on an evolving list that is prioritized by a complex variety of factors. Some considerations are the particular year’s funding allotment, permit availability, scheduling requirements, coordination with other projects and/or agencies, and each roadway’s pavement condition score. Each year, DPW aims to improve a balance of local, arterial and collector roads.
A separate paving project under the summer paving program is in progress in central Marin. That $1.2 million project is focusing on the 0.62 miles of roadway in the Sleepy Hollow area.