The city street and traffic division gave their annual report during an October City Commission meeting.

Eric Boyd, the division manager, said that they are making data informed decisions rather than flying by the seat of their pants.

The division completed asphalt mill and overlay around Lincoln School and 33rd Street South following ADA improvements; updated city traffic signal heads to comply with federal regulations; completed design on 32nd Street South ADA upgrades for 2024 construction and did preliminary design to work toward bidding six blocks of street reconstruction on the lower northside following utility updates for 2023 construction.

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Boyd said the division uses the overall condition index ratings of city streets. The OCI is the overall condition of the street that 20 criteria, including pavement condition, how the street rides, safety, ADA, geometric, drainage and more.

He said they have a map of road conditions and they also track work orders, citizen requests and develop maintenance plans to see where they need to make improvements. Their system generates reports to see predict future conditions and plan for future needs.

The OCI allows the division to make informed decisions on prioritizing maintenance and improvements, Boyd said.

“We like to use facts,” Boyd said. “It allows us to remove emotion” and make the best decisions.

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He told commissioners that streets aren’t typically important to the average citizen until they have a problem such as a pothole.

Most of the city’s streets are in fair condition, he said, with many needing mill and overlay.

The city is trying to get 72 years of pavement life out of the average street, Boyd told commissioners.

Boyd said that the city has 2,313 miles of street in the fair condition needing resurfacing, which would take about 46 years to accomplish at current resurfacing rates.

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The further a street condition degrades, the cost of maintenance goes up, he said.

They also consider citizen requests for services, routine inspections, age and condition of utilities under streets and other factors, in determining which streets need attention, he told commissioners. He said they don’t want to reconstruct a street that sits over 100-year-old water mains that will be replaced in a few years.

They also consider geographical location so crews aren’t moving equipment all over town, he said.

The streets division is funded through the street maintenance assessment as well as the state fuel tax and state funding through legislation, as well as internal service charges for engineering and design.

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The state fuel tax is based on population and miles of road, so as the city grows, the calculation changes. It’s competitive funding as other cities are also growing, Boyd said.

He said they’ve been seeing a reduction in state funding over the years.

Boyd said that when they asked for a 10 percent local assessment increase, their material costs had increased 47 percent since the last assessment increase in 2015.

The city’s current valuation of its streets is $1.5 billion; he said.

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Boyd said they currently have six vacancies in the streets division.

The traffic section of public works helps maintain safe movement through pavement markings, traffic signs and signals and more.

Boyd said there are 3,400 pavement markings in the city, some of which are on a revolving schedule for updates.

As of Oct. 3, the division had completed 348 tasks this year, and were working on fall updates for yellow curbs and lane lines.

There’s really just one person responsible for all traffic signs in the city, Boyd said, who monitors 14,667 of signs in the city for maintenance and repairs. That section had also handled 25 traffic studies pertaining to signs this year, he said.

The city also maintains traffic signals through a contract with the Montana Department of Transportation. For the most recent fiscal year, that contract was $97,000 but varies, Boyd said.

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There are 93 signalized intersections in the city, 24 of which are owned by the city and 69 owned by MDT.

The division also handles snow and ice removal.

Boyd said citizens don’t realize that not every street in the city gets plowed and plowing operations follow a priority route schedule.

The snow map is reviewed annually, he said.

There were 81 days of snow with 96.2 inches of snow last year, he said. The division removed snow from downtown four times last year to try to keep snow berms out of the Parade of Lights and Christmas Stroll, he said.

Boyd said they ask residents to use snow sense and not shovel snow into the streets, because that slows plowing operations.

The division handles street sweeping and had completed 2,600 hours as of the Oct. 3 meeting. He expected the city to be on track for average street sweeping hours this year.

The material picked up in sweeping is dependent on how bad the winter is, he said.

As of Oct. 3, the division had repaired 3,797 potholes this year. Boyd said they try to respond to pothole reports within 24 hours.

The division had completed about 40 blocks, or a little over three miles of mill and overlay as of the Oct. 3 meeting. Boyd said if the weather cooperated, they should be right on the 49 blocks average for the year.

They had a drop in mill and overlay in 2020 due to COVID and staffing issues but have resurfaced 74 miles of streets since 2004.

The division typically averages about 80 blocks of chip seal for road maintenance but didn’t do any thig year since they had more streets in need of mill and overlay, Boyd said.

Commissioner Rick Tryon asked about the process if someone calls the city complaining about drag racing and needing a stop sign.

Boyd said they look at the data for the street, potentially do a traffic study to collect speeds, types of vehicles and when the rush is. Sometimes staff installs a camera that records traffic, speeds and times and use that data for an honest representation of the traffic patterns and whether a traffic control measure is needed.

Sometimes the solution is a lighted sign calling attention to vehicle speeds, which often addresses the problem temporarily.