Street Surface Maintenance Program

Program Description

SSMP was adopted by Ordinance No. 1966, effective on July 1, 2007. The ordinance, in concert with other related ordinances, established funding sources, including a street maintenance fee, an electric utility privilege tax, and a local gas tax. All funds were dedicated to street maintenance and rehabilitation, with the goal of bringing all arterials and collectors in the city to a “good” or better condition within ten years.

City Staff presents an annual SSMP report to Council.  Reports can be found on the Council Meeting Archives.  

Meeting dates for the last three reports:

• May, 17, 2022
• May 18, 2021
• June 16, 2020
• March 19, 2019

To calculate your fee, visit the SAFE/Street Commercial Fee page.

Overall Condition of the Network

The engineering department maintains a database of street condition for all city streets based on the Pavement Condition Index (PCI).  The database is updated with our completed maintenance and rebuilding projects, and any new streets or repaired streets completed by private development.  A newly paved street has a PCI of 100.  Part of the decision matrix for street maintenance is based on the following generally accepted PCI values:

PCI Goal:  The SSMP PCI goal is to bring all arterial and collector streets to a rating of 75 or better, with adequate maintenance to sustain this level of pavement quality.  The average network-wide PCI value for all streets was 59 over the past year, which was up from 52 in the previous year.  A comprehensive evaluation of the PCI for the street network was completed by a consultant in 2019. 

2020 PCI values:

• Arterial Streets: 61 (previously 63 in 2019, and 67 in 2018)
  Arterials account for 9.2% of the street network by length and 12.0% by area.
• Collector and minor collector streets: 59 (previously 62 in 2019, and 64 in 2018)
  Collector and minor collector streets account for 29.4% of the city’s network by length and 30.2% by area. 
• Neighborhood/Local streets: 55 (previously 57 in 2019, and 46 in 2018)
  Local streets account for 61.4% of the city’s network by length and 57.8% by area.

Deferred Maintenance Goal:  The goal is to eliminate the backlog of deferred maintenance of streets.  Many of the city’s local streets, however, have already reached a state of deterioration that requires full reconstruction.   A review of current funding plus anticipated revenue indicates a significant shortfall to meet our goal of both maintaining arterial and collector streets and rebuilding our local streets.  

Maintenance Goals:  The goal is to prevent any street from deteriorating to the point of requiring full reconstruction.  

Stopgap Goals:  The goal is to continue adequate funding the program and repair trouble spots throughout the city using street patching and pothole filling, with the expectation that these needs will diminish as the program continues.  Stopgap repairs are funded through current street fund revenues.  There has been satisfactory progress toward this goal over the past year.

Upcoming Projects (See Capital Improvement Plan for full project description)

2023

• Harvey Street Improvements
• Ardenwald North Improvements
• Monroe Street Neighborhood Greenway
• ​Washington Street Area Improvements
• Logus Road / 40th Avenue Improvements
• Waverly South Improvements

2024

• Ardenwald South Improvements
• International Way Improvements
• King Road Improvements

2025

• Park Street / Lloyd Street Improvements
• Lewelling North Improvements
• North Milwaukie Improvements

2026

• Oatfield Road and Shell Lane SAFE/SSMP
• Sparrow Street Improvements SAFE/SSMP