Winter storms worsen the already poor quality of streets in Salinas.

Smooth roads are not just an aesthetic issue, they are a safety issue: They influence the routes drivers take and how fast they can go. And in Salinas, residents are complaining that damage to roads is negatively impacting their quality of life.

Street conditions were a hot topic during a budget meeting Salinas City Council held on Jan. 25, where several residents questioned why streets are in a state of disrepair. They said Boronda Road and Towt Street have so many severe potholes and cracks it is difficult to drive or walk when taking kids to school.

The issue is not new in Salinas. In 2021, the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) showed Salinas had a failing grade of 55 points on a scale of 0 to 100. Public Works Director David Jacobs says he thinks the PCI has gotten even worse since then, including in the past month of heavy storms, with 4.4 inches of rainfall recorded at the Salinas Municipal Airport between Dec. 27 and Jan. 24. “The amount of water that came down created a lot of potholes,” Jacobs says.

In January, residents submitted 270 pothole alerts through the Salinas Connect app. As of Jan. 26, 170 of those were repaired.

The city currently has one crew filling cracks once a week, and two groups filling potholes. Jacobs says some types of street repairs on specific problem areas, such as crack-filling and chip seals, are relatively cheap. But grinding and repaving a mile of two-lane street costs about $3 million.

Meanwhile, there are three sinkholes that are currently fenced off. Another sinkhole near Los Padres Elementary School was repaired during the storm, but a battle over payment is underway (see story, p. 17). Councilmember Andrew Sandoval says the city should develop a different system for repairs, otherwise “We’re going to cause more road hazards and wasting taxpayers’ money.”

Early estimates show the winter storms did at least $1 million worth of damage. That comes on top of existing prior needs. In 2021, the city of Salinas had a backlog of $169 million in street repairs, which could increase to $341 million by the end of 2025. That is more than the city’s entire annual operating budget of $232.4 million for the last fiscal year.

“We’re working at a deficit. We just don’t have the money that we need,” City Manager Steve Carrigan says. “It’s not that the council won’t give it to us. We just don’t have that kind of money.”

Public Works, which maintains streets, sidewalks and trees, has a $7 million annual budget, far less than the $24 million it needs to maintain its current PCI and the $36 million needed if it wants to improve.

Thanks largely to federal Covid relief funds and Salinas’ surplus of about $10 million, Public Works does have additional cash for specific projects. Those include $6 million for traffic safety, including paving local streets ($3.5 million of which has already been spent), and another $5.5 million for a Boronda Road congestion relief project between Dartmouth Way and Independence Boulevard, plus $1.3 million from countywide Measure X.