DPW Repaves First 25 Blocks Using Prop B Bond

Twenty-five blocks of SF’s pothole-ridden streets have been repaved using the $248 million street improvements bond approved by voters last November, the SF Department of Public Works announced this week.

The repaving, which began in April, should make the streets safer for all users — particularly bicycle riders, who face the greatest danger from cracks and potholes. DPW says it has also installed 167 curb ramps (of 800 planned) and repaired a number of sidewalks using the bond funds.

Walk SF Executive Director Elizabeth Stampe said she looks forward to wider sidewalks and calmer traffic from the bond improvements, which “will make walking in San Francisco safer and more inviting for everyone.” Sidewalk extensions aren’t being built in the re-paving projects, but DPW spokesperson Gloria Chan said they will be included in streetscape improvement projects which the bond will help fund.

In the first year of the streets bond program, DPW says it plans to use $44.1 million to repave more than 400 blocks, plus another 300 using non-bond money. Overall, the bond will help repave 1,400 blocks in three years, according to DPW.

In May, SFGate’s City Insider reported that San Francisco spends more money per resident on street maintenance than any other major city examined in a report by the City Controller’s Office, yet its pavement quality was the worst of any city except Oakland.

While the bond measure, approved as Proposition B last year, was favored by advocates like Walk SF, the SF Bicycle Coalition, and SPUR as a way to catch up with the city’s massive backlog of street repairs — which get more expensive to fix over time — others have criticized it as a short-sighted solution that’s not worth the debt. Livable City Director Tom Radulovich told Streetsblog last July that it also sent “the wrong economic signals,” since using general funds to pay for repaving shields motorists from the true costs of the wear-and-tear they exert on roads.

Here’s a list of the 25 blocks re-paved with the Streets Bond so far:

• 12th Street, South Van Ness to Howard
• 15th Street, Folsom to South Van Ness (2 blocks)
• 18th Street Folsom to South Van Ness (2 blocks)
• Greenwich, Steiner to Pierce
• Laguna, Bay to North Point
• Scott, North Point to Beach
• Washington, Van Ness to Octavia (3 blocks)
• Washington, Laguna to Buchanan
• 22nd Avenue, Ortega to Pacheco
• 29th Avenue, Moraga to Noriega
• 31st Avenue, Noriega to Ortega
• 32nd Avenue, Taraval to Ulloa
• 34th Avenue, Irving to Judah
• Clayton, Parnassus to Ashbury
• Clayton, Page to Haight
• Cole, Alma to Rivoli
• Steiner, Ellis to O’Farrell
• Steiner, Post to Sutter
• Leavenworth, Bush to Pine
• Lombard, Powell to Mason
• Broadway, Davis to Front

DPW said its goal is to use the Streets Bond to improve SF’s citywide Pavement Condition Index rating from 64 to the statewide average of 66 by 2015.