Several Signal Hill street segments are slated to get repaved with a “slurry seal” starting next month, according to Signal Hill Public Works Director Thomas Bekele.
The nearly $360,000 project also includes repairing some asphalt pavement and adding new traffic striping to the repaired and repaved roads. The Signal Hill City Council awarded a contract for the work to Irwindale-based Mission Paving and Sealing, Inc. on Tuesday, April 12.
The work will start mid-May and be completed by mid-July, Bekele told the council, adding that the City will notify residents and businesses beforehand whose parking may be affected. Once applied, slurry seals take five to eight hours to cure.
“We will work with the contractor to align the paving operation with street-cleaning days to minimize inconvenience to residents and businesses,” Bekele said. “Trash pick-up day, too.”
A 2019 evaluation of Signal Hill streets recommended that several needed to be repaired and improved, according to their pavement-condition index (PCI) scores, Bekele noted in a report to the council. A new street would get a PCI of 100.
Applying a slurry seal to streets with PCIs between 60 and 85, such as those being repaved, is the most “cost effective strategy,” Bekele stated, telling the council on Tuesday that the Signal Hill’s average PCI as of February was 73.7.
Applying a thin layer of slurry seal is a “preventative maintenance approach,” Bekele said. The City couldn’t do the necessary work until now due to COVID-19 concerns, he added.
According to the LA County Public Works Department, a slurry seal overlays a mixture of water, asphalt emulsion, aggregate or very small crushed rock, and additives to an existing asphalt pavement. It is generally used on residential streets to seal cracks and preserve the underlying pavement.
Trucks with mixers blend the ingredients and the resulting slurry flows out of the rear of the truck and onto the pavement where it is spread by workers with squeegees.
Street segments scheduled to be treated are in the northwest and southeast areas of the city.
In the northwest, street segments include: Lime, Olive and Myrtle avenues between 33rd Street and Wardlow Road; Lewis Avenue between 32nd and 33rd streets; Lemon, Cerritos and Orange avenues between 32nd Street and Wardlow Road; and Brayton, Gundry and Falcon avenues between 33rd Street and Wardlow Road.
In the southeast, street segments to be treated include 21st Street from Alamitos to Cherry avenues; Dawson and Raymond avenues from 19th to 20th streets; Stanley and Ohio avenues between 21st and Hill streets plus the Hill Street portion between them; and Stanley and Molino avenues between Hill Street and Skyline Drive.
