Roadway maintenance the topic at Monday's Democratic luncheon
The featured speaker at Monday's Democratic luncheon will be Chris Martinovich, PE, Transportation Manager at Carson City Public Works. He is project manager for Preserve Carson City Roads, a campaign designed to educate Carson City drivers about current roadway conditions, preservation solutions, potential funding sources, and what will happen if sufficient investments are not made to preserve our roads. Chris' presentation will be a status report on progress his project team has made to date.
At public workshops conducted in recent weeks, participants were surveyed on the level of financial contribution they'd be willing to make to maintain local roadways as part of a General Improvement District (GID). Of the four choices, one was zero, followed by $1 to $10, $11 to $20, and greater than $20. Though the survey addressed property owners, the cost of the assessments would be passed through to renters as well, so it's an issue that directly affects all city residents.
A GID would be a legal entity overseen by the Board of Supervisors. District assessments would likely appear on monthly utility bills, and would be based on front footage of the parcel to a city road, parcel acreage, square footage of livable buildings, or estimated traffic generation according to land use, among other possible factors under consideration.
The GID approach was one possible funding mechanism explored during the workshops. In a report presented to the Carson City RTC last year, the consultant hired by the city in 2021 estimated that a GID could raise more than $12 million annually. Another possibility was a new .25 percent sales tax that could generate an estimated $4 million. Extending and repurposing the .125 percent V&T sales tax, currently scheduled to sunset in 2027, could add another $1 million.
Survey results will be presented to RTC members later this year before going to the Board of Supervisors in the spring. In the meantime, city staff will be looking at GIDs around the west to learn how they've worked for other communities. More information about pavement conditions and the GID survey can be found at www.preservecarsoncityroads.com.
Federal grant funding can be used only for regional arterial or collector roads, not for smaller neighborhood streets. The city has received over $37 million in federal grants since 2018, but those funds can only be used for reconstruction of regional roads, not maintenance of neighborhood streets.
Where do our roadways stand today? Simply stated, they are failing. The condition of Carson City’s pavement infrastructure has been declining at a rapid rate in recent years, particularly on neighborhood streets, which represent over 70% of the city’s street network. Pavement condition on neighborhood streets has declined almost 10% over the past five years, and a 2022 study estimated the annual funding shortfall to be nearly $21 million. That shortfall is only expected to grow with decreased fuel demand and increased construction costs.
Our roads are the lifeline that connects people to where they need to go, be it shopping, school, work, church or home. Without well enough maintained roadways, those connections will get bumpy and more difficult to navigate. Potholes, cracks and uneven pavement don't merely cause annoyance and delay, they also contribute to increased wear and tear on tires and overall car upkeep, not to mention the safety and mobility of cyclists, pedestrians, and transit users.
Measures such as patching or slurry seals preserve roadways for many years, eliminating the need to be fully repaved. These incremental preservation approaches are not only cost-effective, they also lessen the impact on those who live on or around roadways being repaired. Once a road passes the point where preservation is possible, much more costly reconstruction becomes the only path forward.
After earning a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2009, Chris Martinovich became a project manager for Jacobs Engineering, where he worked for over a decade. In January 2020 became a Carson City traffic engineer, and in November 2021 he was promoted to Transportation Manager. In that capacity, he oversees the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC), which establishes priorities and recommends appropriate funding for transportation improvement projects within Carson City. He also manages the Carson Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), the agency designated by the state as responsible for metropolitan transportation planning in the Carson City urbanized area, consisting of Carson City, northern Douglas County, and western Lyon County.
As a professional engineer and Carson City native, Chris is eager to work with community organizations and individuals to resolve the funding issues surrounding roadway maintenance. His main point of emphasis is that further delays will only increase the cost of bringing our roadways up to an acceptable and sustainable state of repair.
This event is scheduled for 1:00 PM on Monday, October 23rd, and can be attended either in person at Black Bear Diner, inside Max Casino, or online via Zoom. The presentation will begin after all the lunch orders have been taken, around 1:30. Those wishing to be on distribution for luncheon Zoom links should contact Rich Dunn at richdunn@aol.com.
- Board of Supervisors
- Carson City Public Works
- Black Bear Diner
- CAMPO
- Carson Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
- Chris Martinovich
- Community
- Democratic
- General Improvement District
- GID
- grants
- Jacobs Engineering
- luncheon
- Max Casino
- Monday
- neighborhood streets
- October 23rd
- Preserve Carson City Roads
- reconstruction
- regional roads
- Regional Transportation Commission
- Rich Dunn
- richdunn@aol.com
- Roadway maintenance
- RTC
- slurry seals
- survey
- Transportation Manager
- University of Nevada
- workshops
- Zoom
- reno