When Will the Street Paving Project Be Done in Half Moon Bay?

Seems everywhere you turn in Half Moon Bay these days there’s a street or parking area closed off for repairing and resurfacing. This work will improve street conditions for residents despite the temporary inconvenience of getting around town and finding parking.

Still, when will the street paving project be done in Half Moon Bay? The City’s maintenance program for streets in fair condition was originally estimated to take seven years to complete but thanks to budgetary savings and Measure J funds, it will be complete in four to five years, according to the City of Half Moon Bay.

The program emphasizes scheduled maintenance of streets in fair condition over streets in poor condition. Why? Because the San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan Commission and various other publics agencies have determined that timely preservation of streets in fair condition is far more cost effective than restoring a few streets in poor condition, which require much costlier and disruptive dig-outs, reconstruction and overlay.

The streets that are currently in the maintenance cycle are in the area north of Grand Boulevard to the City limits as well as the downtown area north of Monte Vista Lane. Other segments of the City will be targeted in the near future.

The Cape Seal phase of the project, which rehabilitates streets in fair condition with a durable pavement sealing, started the week of Sept. 9 in the areas north of Main Street/Strawflower Shopping Center and the downtown area north of Poplar Street and east of Highway 1. This phase of the street maintenance program won’t be complete for another few weeks, just in time for the Pumpkin Festival.

Streets that receive Cape Seal will affect the area for two to three days and there may be gaps of two to five days between each operation, weather depending.

Certain streets in fair condition with higher volumes of traffic are scheduled to receive AC overlay, which is a more intensive asphalt concrete resurfacing method. 

The AC overlay work schedule is not yet available but will commence sometime this year and will include Kelly Avenue, St. Joseph Avenue, Pilarcitos Avenue, and Ruisseau Francis Avenue. 

This project will be done one-half street at a time since there will be no street use for three hours during the project until asphalt is rolled and cools down. 

Streets in the poorest condition or requiring extensive repairs will be priorities for repairs after 2014, when all streets in fair condition are preserved. Once the City’s current maintenance schedule is completed within the next two years, the City will then consider its funding capability for repairing streets in poor condition. The City Council will set the priority for those streets.

All work is being coordinated with the USPS, Waste Collection, Emergency Service Providers, affected schools and the Pumpkin Festival. 

If you need to use a street during a scheduled work operation, contact project inspector Jun Osalbo at 510-384-8721 or project manager Marc Guido at 408-460-6674.