Take a look at the Spreckels Avenue-Industrial Park Drive corridor.

Truck traffic over the years has significantly pounded the pavement between Yosemite Avenue and Main Street.

Taking a semi-educated guess based on what it cost the city last year to upgrade Louise Avenue between Main Street and a point east of Highway 99, contracting out the entire Spreckels-Industrial Park Drive to make pavement upgrades likely would have cost the city in excess of $4 million.

It is money the city doesn’t have.

And if they squirreled away money to do the work, costs would keep going up and the pavement would deteriorate even more making the project even more expensive.

The city, in a tectonic shift in how it tackles significant pavement work, several years ago made the decision to do more pavement work in-house.

They were able to do so with prudent use of federal pass through pandemic relief funds. It allowed the acquisition of pavement repair equipment the city did not have.

More importantly, it replaced aging equipment they had that spent more time idle while awaiting repairs and parts.

The city three years ago, started tackling the Spreckels-Industrial Park corridor in segments doing the most problematic sections first.

Initially, it was Spreckels north of Moffat Boulevard to a point near American Modular.

The work last year was a segment from American Modular to near J&M Equipment.

Plans call for Spreckels from Yosemite Avenue to Phoenix Drive to be addressed later this year.

Meanwhile, this week crews dug up deteriorating pavement and replaced it on the worst section of the Industrial Park Drive portion of the corridor from Main Street to Vanderbilt Circle.

There are other segments of the corridor such as near Van Ryn Avenue that are clear candidates to be done in the next few years.

Ultimately, city crews could end up repaving the entire stretch from Yosemite to Main in bite size pieces over a number of years.

It is a strategy that tackles the worst segments first.

And it is far more efficient than trying to cobble together enough money to go out to bid for a larger project that does all the work in one fell swoop.

That’s because the worst segments are tackled first with what resources the city has. It improves the worst parts arguably in a quicker time frame.

What city crews are doing with Spreckels-Industrial, did downtown on Yosemite Avenue between Main Street and the tracks, and have done as well as preparing to do elsewhere is a huge argument to commit most, if not all, the Measure Q money that will be set aside for street work to fund more in-house work.

The funding, which could be $2 million a year, should go to hiring more street workers, acquiring additional needed equipment, and paying for paving materials.

The argument against such an approach is that additional staff incurs retirement obligations and also could create a problem with being unable to fund the additional positions when the 20-year sales tax expires.

That assumes, of course, city efforts to pump up the general fund from endeavors such as the family entertainment zone and issuing permits for legal cannabis end up being complete duds.

Given all street crew members aren’t the same age, one would also hope future city leaders would slim down the ranks as Measure Q nears its 2045 expiration date if there wasn’t replacement revenue flowing into municipal coffers.

There are a multitude of reasons why committing Measure Q funding set aside to streets to in-house pavement repairs make sense.

*City employees make less per hour than private sector counterparts. That comes into play anytime state and federal dollars are secured for a large project that triggers paying federal prevailing federal wages for such work.

*It would allow more projects to be done over the course of a year. As such, evidence of city street improvements would be spread throughout the city and be more visible.

*Manteca is continually adding streets due to growth. Those streets need to have light pavement life extension work done typically after 10 years of being constructed.

The city’s streets division currently has several open positions.

When they are filled, staffing levels will finally be restored to what they were at in 2008 before Great Recession budget issues forced the streets division workforce to be cut in half.

More street workers would allow the city to handle not just more pavement replacement and such, but when temperatures aren’t optimum for asphalt work the city could go back to making sidewalk repairs as they did before 2008.

Whether the property owner has a lien placed against them for sidewalk work or the city pays for it is an issue Manteca leaders need to decide.

But sidewalk work can be done when the temperature isn’t favorable for paving.

And if there ends up not being enough work in winter months when it comes to streets, there certainly are other maintenance needs in the city that some of the street manpower could be temporarily assigned.

The condition of  streets is one of the biggest gripes that Manteca residents voice.

Since voters authorized the 20-year, three-quarter of a cent Measure Q sales tax, there  is an expectation that something will happen now that there is extra money flowing into the general fund.

Trying to add another $2 million project a year won’t get as much bang for the buck.

And perception wise, it would look like the city was doing little with Measure Q receipts.

The city will still have funding sources they can pursue for larger projects.

A more robust in-house street division would create highly visible improvements to streets, sidewalks, bike paths, pavement markings and such to enhance public safety.

Roads in disrepair, sidewalks with tripping hazards, and lane markings doing a disappearing act are serious issues.

Measure Q funds making the streets division more muscular to tackle such problems without having to go to bid and be subject to the price pressures created when demand is high for street work means more street improvements can be made and be done quicker.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com