Hollywood Park will have engineers assess the surface of all city roads to support a new long-term street maintenance program.

Hollywood Park City Council on Feb. 21 voted to allocate up to $26,000 to launch an engineering study that will form the basis of the long-term road repair program.

In setting aside the funds, the council authorized Mayor Sean Moore to work to decide which of the two bidding engineering firms—KCI Technologies and Givler Engineering—will be hired to assess the pavement condition of all city roads.

Council Member Chester Drash, an engineer by trade, briefed the council on the new road pavement condition program as a means to update Hollywood Park’s streets and get ahead of needed long-range fixes.

Drash said Hollywood Park last did a citywide road study in 2013, an initiative that resulted in some street improvement projects.

Drash said engineers will look at every street; rank, categorize and prioritize them; and then collect cost estimates to fix them.

“The idea is that we can have these costs and start establishing a budget line item going forward every year [for] how to address these streets,” Drash said.

A new street maintenance system will also help lengthen the life expectancy of pavement, Drash said, adding that most road repairs typically consist of crack sealing and addressing potholes.

Public Works Director Kelly Cowan said the city has the ability to handle usual street improvement issues, such as crack sealing, with in-house equipment and staff, but larger repairs would have to be contracted out.

“We’re not in dire straits, but I think we need to look at this,” Drash said.

Drash also said Hollywood Park’s total drainage system is solid, but a few areas that must be addressed.

Moore agreed having an updated road surface assessment done by this summer, in time for planning Hollywood Park’s fiscal year 2023-24 budget, will support long-range street improvement budgeting efforts.

“If we get this done before the budget process this summer, we can go into the budget and say, 'Here are some street improvement opportunities, and now we’ll need to put them into the budget,'” Moore said.