City of Glendale Receives Top Honors

The Public Works Officers’ Institute on Thursday announced the winners of the first-ever 2014 Outstanding Local Streets and Roads Projects Awards at its annual meeting in Sacramento.

The six winners, three cities and three counties, were honored for making extraordinary efforts to preserve and improve the overall quality of the local streets and roads system. City of Glendale is the overall winner with the cities of Hayward and Santa Monica and the counties of Butte, Los Angeles and Placer also being recognized.

Sponsored by the League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties and County Engineers Association of California, the Outstanding Local Streets and Roads Project Awards Program recognizes projects that serve as best practices and can be replicated by other jurisdictions. The award is also an acknowledgement of the cities and counties that promote sustainability in the local transportation system, including the efficient delivery of infrastructure and environmental stewardship.

The awards are being given in conjunction with the 2014 California Statewide Local Streets and Roads Needs Assessment, a biannual report documenting pavement condition. Cities and counties will be participating in the survey between now and March 31 and the data will be released later this year. The survey results put a real number on the quality of California’s local streets and roads and illuminates what it actually costs to maintain the system.

Keith Cooke, San Leandro principal engineer and president of the League’s Public Works Department stressed how these awards serve a dual purpose. “Our local streets and roads system is in dire need of funding. These awards highlight the work being done by cities and counties to maintain and improve their local streets and roads and showcases how local governments are good stewards of the limited resources we receive for pavement maintenance. As I congratulate these six award-winning local governments I also want to urge all cities and counties to participate in the 2014 Local Streets and Roads Needs Assessment. California’s economy can’t thrive without a solid and safe local streets and road network.”

“We have three counties and three cities winning awards this week for innovative and cost saving road improvement projects, but they are just a few examples of what local governments do on a regular basis,” said Scott McGolpin, president of the County Engineers Association of California (CEAC) and director of Public Works from Santa Barbara County. “We have been learning to do more with less for a long time now, but even so, there is a significant backlog of road improvement and maintenance projects that just keeps getting longer.”

Forward-thinking cities and counties have made extraordinary efforts to protect and improve the existing local transportation system through a variety of types of projects and programs. Through these exemplary efforts, cities and counties are reducing drive times and congestion; improving driver, bicycle, and pedestrian safety; and ultimately reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Green technologies are less resource intensive, emit fewer harmful air pollutants, and produce less water pollution. Ultimately, a safe, well-maintained, and environmentally friendly local transportation system significantly saves cities and counties, and taxpayers, money in the long-term.

Projects and programs included:

  • Progressive preservation programs;
  • Employment of emerging technologies and materials;
  • Critical safety projects;
  • Accommodating all users through complete streets and active transportation projects;
  • Partnerships with agencies, organizations, and/or the media to achieve a desired outcome; and
  • Innovation in project delivery.

For more information, please visit www.SaveCaliforniaStreets.org.