Town secures $77M to repave roads
PARADISE » The town of Paradise has secured nearly $77million in federal funds to repave the cracked, uneven pavement of its roads, serving as a major step in recovery from the Camp Fire, Paradise town officials announced in a press conference Tuesday morning.
“This is going to be the largest investment in infrastructure this town has ever seen,” said Marc Mattox, public works director and town engineer of Paradise. “I think it’s pretty critical. There are so many different pillars of recovery. They all work together. Without one, almost none of it works.”
The project was jumpstarted by a grant fromthe North Valley Community Foundation’s Butte Strong Fund.
Following the Camp Fire in 2018, the town’s roadways suffered heavy damage because of high traffic from debris and tree removal trucks, Mattox said.
The North Valley Community Foundation was able to provide a $24,500 grant to Paradise to be used to contract a company, Hawkeye Roadway, to determine the quality of its roads before and after debris removal.
The company surveyed the roads with laser technology in January 2019.
After nearly 300,000 truckloads of debris removal from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the company conducted a survey in September 2019 and determined that therewas significant pavement “cracking and rutting” which would lead to pavement failure.
All publicly owned and maintained roads will be upgraded, Mattox said. That includes busy roads such as Clark and Neal roads, as well as residential roads. The only exception would be private roads.
“This is a great day,” said Paradise mayor Greg Bolin at the press conference.
Because of the severity of the damage, the town was able to secure $77.3 million in federal funds to repave its roads. The Federal Highway Administration Emergency Relief Program for Federal Aid Roads will provide $36,290,000 for the larger roads in town. The Federal Highway Administration Emergency Relief Program will provide $1,713,000 to repave Neal Road.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide $38,290,000 for the smaller roads in town like local and residential roads.
“We’re able to leverage $24,000 to $77 million. It’s pretty incredible,” Mattox said. “To be able to provide infrastructure and have safe roads that are going to last two decades, this is literally really important work.”
Construction on roadways won’t begin until April 2022 and are projected to finish by September 2025.
Mattox said the town will need to work with Paradise Irrigation District as well as different companies such as PG&E, Comcast and AT&T to plan out the timing of road work. For example, Mattox said the town doesn’t want to repave a road then have it be damaged because a trench needed to be dug up to access lines underground.
“There’s somany moving pieces in the recovery,” Mattox said. “The strategy over the next five years is going to be critical.”
Mattox said the repaved roads will serve as a finishing touch to the town’s recovery.
“The way North Valley Community Foundation stepped up and was willing to do something different — it was pretty incredible,” Mattox said. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”