Street Maintenance

Signals & Signs  *  Weather  *  Snow & Ice   *   Vegetation Control  *  Crack Sealing

The Streets Maintenance Division is committed to efficiently improving the safety and condition of the Streets and drainage facilities in the Town of Paradise.

We will strive to provide prompt, courteous and professional public works services to the citizens of Paradise including maintaining the streets and roadways including snow removal, repairing cracks and potholes and vegetation removal.

Near-Term Accomplishments

 1. Conducted 5th year of Snow Day with other agencies such as PID Water, Butte County Public Works and other mutual aid agencies.

2. Annual striping program was a success. We striped approximately 30 lane miles.

3. Purchased new On-Call and EOC (Emergency Operations Center) pickup F-550 4x4 Diesel with dump bed and snow plow. (Pictured)

 4. Installed Rip Rap and grouted drainage ditch at Gold Nugget Museum for erosion control.

5. Annual crack seal program completed 4 lanes of Clark, from Bille Rd to Wagstaff and Pentz Rd, from Wagstaff to Skyway.

6. Replaced roadway reflectors on upper Pentz, Neal Rd, Clark Rd, Bille Rd, Pearson Rd from Stearns to Pentz and Hilbe Curve.

 7. Installed Pedestrian Crossing (Ped X-ing) signs at crucial crossways Pearson and Academy, Skyway and Fir St and at schools on Maxwell and Pentz roads.

8. Replaced the 15 inch drainage pipe across Skyway north of Wagstaff which had collapsed during January, 2006 storms. The pipe was upgraded to 18 inches.

9. Purchased and installed new tailgate sander unit for Dump truck #12.

Near-Term Goals

1. Dig outs in numerous locations due to tree roots lifting the roadway.

2. Purchase a new Power Broom and Crack Seal Machine.

3. Clean drainage ditches and culverts in critical areas for improvement and shoulder repair.

4. Continue skin patching program on several failed areas on roadways.

5. Continue striping program.

6. Continue crack seal program.

7. Tree trimming on roads with low hanging branches and sight distance problems.

8. Continue roadside vegetation spraying program.

Vegetation Control

Every Spring, the Town of Paradise Public Works Department performs its spring herbicide application. The herbicide application is intended to keep the road edges and ditches free of noxious weeds, and helps reduce the fire danger. Roundup herbicide is often used, and is sprayed at critical road shoulders and selected areas along the Memorial Trailway, drainage ditches, and other areas that have problems with noxious weeds.

Most treated areas receive a four-foot wide band of herbicide applied (from the edge of pavement outward). The treatment reduces the amount of weeds and vegetation alongside the roadway edges and greatly reduces the chance of carelessly thrown cigarettes causing wildland fires. In addition, control of noxious weeds during this stage of development improves the roadside drainage and minimizes additional maintenance by Town staff. Detailed maps showing the areas to be treated are available here or at the Public Works Department at Paradise Town Hall.

Town's No Spray Areas

Trained and licensed operators does all spraying in strict conformance with the Butte County Agricultural Commissioner requirements and the manufacturer’s recommendations. Anyone interested in either the product label or the Material Data Safety Sheets for this product are invited to view online or at Town Hall.

If residents would prefer to not have the area in front of their property sprayed, please contact the Public Works Department to arrange for a "no-spray" agreement or print one here and mail to Town of Paradise/Public Works, 5555 Skyway, Paradise, Ca 95969. We always try very hard to not spray ornamental flowers and shrubs planted in the right of way. However, since most of our spraying is done at night, occasionally ornamentals will not be visible to the operators.

Spraying operations are performed with a Town of Paradise pickup and a 300-gallon pull spray tank. If motorists encounter the spraying operations, please stay back a reasonable distance. The operators will pull off the roadway and allow the motorists to pass at the first convenient location.

Crack Sealing

Crack sealing is a maintenance procedure for either flexible asphalt concrete pavements, or Portland cement concrete pavements. Crack sealing is designed to extend the life of existing pavements by eliminating or reducing the entrance of water into the pavement structure through the upper surface. By stopping the entrance of water, the rate of deterioration of the road is significantly slowed. This allows the need for overlaying to be deferred for a substantial number of years and thus reduces maintenance costs.

A large amount of time and money is invested to maintain the network of roads throughout the Town. Pavement crack sealing is the most efficient way to prolong the life of the pavement. If a pavement is not sealed, water will enter the pavement by gravity, capillary action, or through the pressure caused by vehicle tires. This is especially the case when the cracks are over 1/8 inch wide. Water will filter into the structural material below the pavement causing potholes and "alligatoring".

A surface seal will cost 3 to 14 times as much as sealing the cracks. An overlay will cost 8 to 26 times as much as crack sealing. Although surface sealing or overlaying improves the road’s appearance, the problems have been solved only temporarily because the cracks will reappear within a 1- to 2- year span. If the cracks have not been sealed before the surface seal is applied, the water will enter the new surface and continue through the older surface to the base course. On the other hand, if the cracks are properly sealed, an average gain of three years of extra service can be expected.

Wildland Fire Zone Assignments Map

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