City Celebrates Most Productive Fiscal Year for Road Resurfacing in Over a Decade

San Diego city officials, including Mayor Todd Gloria, celebrated 250 miles of repair and resurfacing work Wednesday on South Bay roads at a location in the Nestor neighborhood.

Officials said the slurry seal projects, completed during the fiscal year that ended Sunday, marked a “key milestone.”

In a statement, city officials said 2024 was “one of the most productive years for road-resurfacing in over a decade, underscoring the city’s commitment to investing in infrastructure.”

According to Gloria’s office, progress will continue in the coming year, with the “Protecting Our Progress” budget and another record level of investment in road repair.

The fiscal year 2025 budget has $104.7 million for overlay reconstruction projects and $35.3 million for slurry seal projects, according to the city.

“We’re making record investments in road repair to address years of insufficient investment that have left these critical public assets in bad shape,” Gloria said.

“San Diegans deserve safe and smooth roads, and this milestone demonstrates our continued commitment to improving streets and neighborhood infrastructure in every community,” he added.

Along with slurry seal work in Nestor, the city’s Transportation Department and contractors have started projects in the Serra Mesa, Navajo, Pacific Beach and Peninsula neighborhoods.

The completion of slurry seal miles “is a year-long process requiring hard work and careful planning from city staff and our resurfacing partners,” Transportation Director Bethany Bezak said. “We appreciate the support from all of our San Diego communities and look forward to continuing our robust paving program into the new fiscal year.”

Slurry seal is considered a cost-effective pavement preservation method that extends the life of streets already in good condition by five to eight years, according to the city.

The material also reduces the need for more expensive asphalt overlay and reconstruction for deteriorated streets, the city added.

The $104.7 million will fund 75 miles of asphalt overlay, along with needed design and planning needed for 105 miles in fiscal year 2026.

The Transportation Department’s two mill-and-pave teams rehabilitate roads to protect the structural integrity of damaged streets, but in shorter sections compared with an asphalt overlay process, according to the city.

The city recently began using two new street resurfacing methods — cape seal and scrub seal. Like slurry seal, those methods extend road usage by repairing cracks, reducing potholes and other surface deformities.

The Transportation Department is working on multiple cape seal projects in several neighborhoods, officials said.

A map of all street repair projects is available at StreetsSD map.

Updated at 6:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 3, 2024

City News Service contributed to this article.