The City of Compton is tackling a large problem that has plagued the community for years — potholes. The condition of the streets was recently assessed and showed that about 70% of the City’s streets are in need of repair. Some streets have not been reconstructed in over 30 years.
The City is working to restore decades of disinvestment and is focused on addressing this issue effectively and finding permanent solutions to the problem, using a 3-pronged approach.
1. The City is utilizing City staff to complete emergency pothole filling projects. Pothole filling temporarily improves drivability and protects against further street decay.
2. The City works with contractors who completely repave sections of streets.This repaving grinds down old asphalt and replaces it to prevent degradation of the road for two to five years.
3. The third approach that the City uses for the most serious cases is full road reconstruction and repaving. These larger projects will repair damaged residential streets and main roads, and may include improvement of curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and ramps.While addressing every at-need street in the City will take time, the City is now able to move faster than before, due to new funding from the City’s Measure P, as well as County Measures M, R and the State Gas Tax. At their December City Council meeting, the City Council approved a measure authorizing approximately $2.5 Million to be spent on road repair services citywide. Through this motion, the Council also approved a construction contract with All American Asphalt Corporation for street repair to begin immediately. This approval came on the heels of another road repair project that had just wrapped up in November. This brought their total funding commitment for road repairs to over $3.5 Million in just six months. In 2019, over $4.5 Million was spent on road repair, all on and off-ramps to the 91 and 710 freeways were reconstructed and almost seven miles of streets were repaired.
The City is now on track to address approximately 50% of their at-need streets by the end of 2020. In January, the City held a press conference, officially announcing a $5.8 Million project for 2020 road repair, which will be the largest investment in residential roads in Compton at onetime over the past 20 years.
This project will kick-off in the Spring and will improve 18 of Compton’s 30 bridges and fully reconstruct 28 streets, or 24 miles of road.
