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The Regional Transportation Commission (“RTC”) and Carson City Public Works routinely complete

capital roadway projects to preserve and rehabilitate pavement on Carson City’s roads. Pavement represents a significant capital asset across Carson City, with a total of 288 centerline miles of paved roads owned and maintained by Carson City. 

Pavement deteriorates over time, and roadway pavement service life is influenced by several factors, including vehicle loading, subsurface conditions, weather, and pavement cuts and patches. The typical life of a pavement is depicted by the Pavement Lifecycle Performance Curve attached in Exhibit 2. New pavement, or newly preserved pavement, remains in ‘good’ condition for the first several years before starting to degrade more quickly as time passes. Cutting and patching pavement can accelerate pavement wear and shorten the life of the pavement, especially new pavement. Carson City has modified and improved standard details for pavement patching over the past several years that better address common issues associated with poor pavement patches. To continue to ensure extended pavement life, staff has drafted the Policy aimed at reducing cutting and patching new pavement. 

The purpose of the Policy is to establish a Pavement Cut Degradation Fee to be assessed on any person, firm, utility company, developer, or other entity (“Applicant”) when the Applicant performs a sawcut, trench, bore, or other excavation in a public roadway that has recently received a pavement preservation treatment or reconstruction within the preceding five years. The fee is intended to recover the cost of accelerated pavement deterioration, account for the cost of repairing and repatching the road using City forces before the next capital project, and deter cutting new pavement, thereby protecting the City's roadway asset.

This concept is not new. Carson City has restricted activities on newly paved roads and routinely charges patching fees where an Applicant’s activities result in a pavement cut that is to be patched by Carson City staff. This Policy updates and clarifies existing practices and aims to limit pavement cuts through authorization of additional penalties as part of the permit process when pavement is cut early in its service life. A basic pavement patching fee of $3.91 per square foot is currently charged to an Applicant when patching is completed by City forces as set forth in Carson City Development Standards 20.5.1 and established engineering permitting fees, available on the City’s website, and attached as Exhibit 3. This basic fee is significantly lower than the actual cost of completing the work, which is estimated to be $15 per square foot. For this reason, the Policy establishes a base fee of $15 per square foot to which a penalty of up to 400 percent is applied for new pavements. This percentage accounts for the loss of pavement life and the future cost of patching an area larger than the current patch. The percentage declines as the pavement ages. Once the pavement reaches 5 years from the last work, there are no longer any pavement cut fees.   

Other local and regional jurisdictions have similar policies, including the City of Reno and Clark County. Policies like these encourage Applicants to coordinate with the City earlier and complete their work quickly, ahead of scheduled construction projects.   

Staff will present the Policy and summarize current pavement patching practices for the RTC's review and input. Following input, the Policy will be brought to the Board of Supervisors for approval at a future date. 

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