Road Pavement Repair and Preservation Program
Pima County has a funding plan to repair and preserve all currently failed and poor roads. By 2030, the average condition of all road pavements is expected to be very good, with an average Pavement Condition Index of 80 [see Pavement Index tab]. The success of this funding plan is dependent on limiting the scope of the program to pavement repair and preservation only. This program does not address nor fund other roadway improvements, such as additional travel, turn, and multi-use lanes (or shoulders) nor drainage improvements, typical of capital projects. In FY 2023, the Board of Supervisors and Transportation Department allocated $66 million in road pavement repair and preservation funding which will repair 94.5 miles of arterial/collector roads and 95.8 miles of local roads.
Fiscal Year 2023 (current)
Fiscal Year 2022 (completed)
Fiscal Year 2021 (completed)
Fiscal Year 2020 (completed)
Maintenance & Operations
1313 S. Mission Rd. Tucson, AZ 85713
Please contact the
Arizona Department of Transportation for issues related to I-10 and the frontage roads.
- To report a pothole or other problem on a County maintained road, call (520) 724-6410 or submit online
- Service requests response times
Road selection process
This page outlines the process used for selecting roadways for repair for Fiscal Year 2022.
Arterial & collector roads
The Pima County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC) in concert with Pima County staff decided that it was in the best interest of preserving the arterial and collector network to allocate resources based on modeling maximum return on investment. A full discussion on this topic, including budget allocations is available on the PCTAC web page.
Local roads
In 2019 the PCTAC conducted a public survey regarding how to allocate resources for local roads. The overwhelming response was to repair worst roads first. As such, the PCTAC adopted the following process for selecting local roads for Fiscal Year 2022:
- Ranking was determined by sorting the list of 1,300 miles of local road segments from worst to best by Pavement Condition Index (PCI) [see Pavement Index Tab].
- Roads of the same PCI were additionally ranked by:
- Presence of school crosswalks
- Lack of sidewalks
- Lot density
Roads in a subdivision will typically have different PCI ratings and because it is not practicable or cost effective to repair one road in a subdivision and then move to another subdivision or local road, the PCTAC provided the following criteria for developing bid packages that would maximize work with the available repair budget:
- Select worst ranked road segment from list, then select all road segments in same subdivision or contiguous to that road in failed or poor status (PCI 60 or less)
- Once all qualifying road segments have been selected, select the next worst road on ranked list
- When the remaining budget is too small to select the next qualifying worst road on the ranked list and associated subdivision/contiguous segments, skip that worst road and select the next worse road on list
Pavement Condition Index
Pavement Condition Index (PCI) is determined by an objective analysis that uses ASTM D6433-18 Standard Practice for Roads and Parking Lots Pavement Condition Index Surveys. PCI ranges from 0 to 100 with the latter representing new pavement.
Condition categories
- Very good: 76-100
- Good: 61-75
- Poor: 41-60
- Failed: 0-40
Roadway PCI ratings
Historical Pavement Condition Trends
The chart below shows progress over time due to the Road Repair Program.
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Pavement treatments
What is Pavement Preservation
Pavement Preservation is the treatment of existing roadway surfaces to extend their useful life. There are several types of treatments that can be applied depending on the condition of the road and whether the intent is to preserve the existing condition as long as optimal or to improve the condition.
Fog Seal
Four-year pavement life extension. A light application of slow setting asphalt emulsion applied to the surface of a bituminous pavement. Fog seals are used to renew aged asphalt surfaces, seal small cracks and surface voids, or adjust the quality of binder in newly applied chip seals.
Chip Seal
Seven-year pavement life extension. A surface treatment in which the pavement is sprayed with asphalt and then covered with aggregate and rolled. Chip seals are used primarily to seal the surface of a pavement with non load-associated cracks and to improve surface friction on low volume streets.
Micro Surface
Seven-year pavement life extension. This treatment provides a “skim coat” of a restorative asphalt to the existing pavement surface, filling minor cracks and correcting pavement defects such as rutting and raveling when applied.
Thinlay
6-10 year pavement life extension depending on the condition at treatment time. Thinlay is an overlay with asphaltic concrete of approximately 1 inch in thickness which may include polymers, rubber or fiber reinforcement. Treatment is applied before the roadway reaches a failed condition and provides a limited structural strength improvement, water resistance, crack resistance as well as a smoother ride. Treatment must be evaluated based on traffic volumes as well as cracking and fatigue characteristics of the roadway.
Mill and Overlay
This process removes a defined thickness of the surface of the existing asphalt pavement, and after observed defects are corrected, the same thickness is replaced with new asphalt thereby returning the pavement to a nearly new condition. This is the second most expensive pavement treatment option. With an appropriate preservation regiment over the life of the pavement it can be expected to last 20-30 years depending on traffic, soil conditions, thickness and other variables.