Citrus Heights residents may see this unusual vehicle around town. Here’s why.

Sentinel staff report–
Through Thanksgiving, residents across Citrus Heights may be seeing an unusual vehicle traveling through neighborhoods and city streets.

The vehicle, a black Ford Transit with a large camera mounted on its roof and messaging cautioning drivers to “keep back 50 feet,” is in charge of collecting data about the condition of roadways in Citrus Heights, according to a post from the city on social media Friday afternoon.

As of Nov. 22, the city said the vehicle was one-third of the way done with its mission to traverse every single street in Citrus Heights, with a goal of accomplishing the task before Thanksgiving Day.

From July: City plans comprehensive survey of Citrus Heights road conditions

The City Council awarded a $116,113 contract for the project in September to the Point Richmond-based consultant NCE. According to City Engineer Stuart Hodgkins, the comprehensive survey seeks to evaluate the condition of more than 200 miles of roadway, a task that hasn’t been done since 2005.

“It’s long overdue,” Hodgkins told The Sentinel in a prior interview this summer. “The current software is outdated, and a street-by-street assessment hasn’t been made in years.”

NCE is tasked with performing an automated pavement condition survey of all paved public city streets and will update the city’s current computer-based system to Streetsaver, a web-based system. NCE will also provide cost analysis for minor and major street repairs.

The evaluation process includes the calculation of a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) block-by-block, or at specific break points established by the city. The PCI rating scale considers 100 as excellent, 55 as good, 40 as fair and below 25 as poor.

As previously reported by The Sentinel, of 363 residential streets listed in the city’s most recent index, nearly 200 fell below a rating of 40.

Once all street surveys are completed and entered into the city’s new evaluation software system, a re-rating process will help prioritize which of the city’s arterial and residential streets should be repaired first.

With new funds from the SB 1 gas tax and other sources, the city is hoping to double the number of road projects that can be done each year. According to Hodgkins, that should put the number at 12 to 15 street projects per year.

Using SB 1 funds, the city is currently targeting 13 sections of streets for repaving over the next year, including portions of Blowing Wind Way, Carol Avenue, Celestial Way, Covewood Court and Scribner Avenue.

For a full list of streets slated for repaving, see story: Here’s the list of streets Citrus Heights is slated to repave in the next year.