Street/Pavement Design & Maintenance

Flowers & Associates, Inc. has provided pavement management, street maintenance, and roadway reconstruction services for more than 25 years for agencies including the Cities of Santa Barbara, Camarillo, Goleta, and Carpinteria, as well as the Counties of Santa Barbara and Ventura. This experience has enabled us to develop a practical, cost-effective approach to pavement preservation that maximizes the value of limited maintenance funding while extending the service life of roadway infrastructure.

Our project managers have hands-on experience in pavement evaluation, design, field marking, and construction management, providing a comprehensive understanding of the entire pavement maintenance process. We routinely evaluate and design rehabilitation strategies including full-depth reconstruction, pulverization with overlay, cold milling and overlay, asphalt concrete point repairs, slurry seals (Types I, II, and III), Cape Seals, and multi-coat slurry seal systems.

Our approach emphasizes selecting the right treatment at the right time to achieve the greatest return on investment. By balancing long-term pavement performance with available funding, we develop phased maintenance strategies that preserve roadway conditions while minimizing lifecycle costs.

Our pavement management services include condition assessments, review of existing pavement data, field evaluations, maintenance and rehabilitation recommendations, cost estimating, project prioritization, capital improvement planning, and short- and long-term budgeting. We also provide complete design and construction services for associated improvements, including drainage systems, curb and gutter, sidewalks, ADA curb ramps, pavement markings, and traffic striping, allowing agencies to address the full range of infrastructure needs within a coordinated pavement maintenance program.

Well-maintained streets are a critical component of an agency’s public image, community appeal, and overall functionality. Flowers & Associates, Inc.’s extensive experience in pavement management and street maintenance, combined with our commitment to protecting our clients’ investment and reputation, uniquely qualifies us to deliver successful roadway improvement programs.

A key component of our success has been the continuity of our project teams. By assigning experienced, consistent personnel, we develop a strong understanding of each agency’s operational procedures, expectations, and priorities, allowing us to provide a higher level of service with minimal direction.

Our ability to independently develop and manage street maintenance programs has been demonstrated through our work with agencies such as the Cities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Gilroy. In many cases, our initial direction has consisted only of a list of streets and an available budget. From this information, we have developed comprehensive maintenance programs that include roadway evaluations, repair recommendations, prioritization, cost estimates, contract packaging, construction documents, and budget reconciliation to ensure all improvements are delivered within available funding.

We understand that pavement maintenance programs require flexibility as priorities, budgets, and field conditions change. Our approach incorporates appropriate contingencies and allows us to efficiently modify project scopes, update contract documents, and maintain progress toward agency goals. Our proactive communication, attention to detail, and focus on client objectives allow us to integrate seamlessly with agency staff and successfully deliver projects.

Flowers & Associates is committed to providing high-quality, responsive services that reflect positively on our clients. Street improvement projects directly impact residents, businesses, and the traveling public, and we prioritize clear communication, timely responses, and thoughtful project planning to minimize disruptions. Our designs balance cost, functionality, constructability, and long-term maintenance requirements, while our established QA/QC procedures include both independent office reviews and field verification.

We work closely with agencies to establish realistic budgets and have consistently demonstrated our ability to deliver projects within, and often below, the approved budget. This commitment to fiscal responsibility extends through both design and construction phases, ensuring our clients receive maximum value from their infrastructure investments.

We look at interfacing between the various stakeholders in street maintenance projects, how we select the type(s) of repair, our approach to budget management, our approach to pavement maintenance programming, and our approach to providing design and construction services.

A typical approach for Overlay and Slurry Seal Projects:

• Evaluate Streets
• Perform coring to determine asphalt thickness
• Can also perform non-destructive testing
• Survey existing monuments
• Perform topographic surveys of existing ramps for replacement

Approach to Working with Stakeholders

Successfully developing and implementing street maintenance projects involves teamwork.  The more cohesive the team is, the better the project outcome.  The team approach, when properly implemented, reduces conflict and problems, improves quality and reduces effort and cost.  The team as we define it includes the public, City, contractor and the design / construction services professional.

Working with the Public

• We strive to deliver effective noticing to the residents
• We strive to make sure once streets are posted the work is performed on schedule
• We ensure that critical facilities (schools, hospitals, fire departments) are taken into consideration for closures and scheduling contractor’s work
• We are visible to the public while we perform our inspection services when construction work is in progress; we are readily available to respond to citizens’ questions and issues
• We respond to residential/business inquiries in an expeditious and courteous manner

Working with the City

• We employ a proactive approach to all of our projects, anticipating problems and giving the City the benefit of our experience and knowledge
• We never become complacent on a project, even after we have secured a contract. We are always looking for ways to improve service and reduce cost and most of all we never take our agency relationships for granted
• We keep City representatives informed on all critical issues and are available at a moment’s notice
• We respond expeditiously to City representative calls, emails, or onsite meetings
• When the project is finished we prepare a comprehensive Final Report which includes daily reports, meeting notes, photographs and other project information. These reports represent a complete file on the project, and we prepare them for every project we do.
• Working with the Contractor
• We work cohesively with contractors and sub-contractors, based on established professional relationships
• We have a reputation for being judicious and fair with contractors
• Local contractors are familiar with our standards of quality and typically know what we expect before the project gets underway
• Because we are familiar with most contractors we understand their strengths and weaknesses and work with them to improve the quality of the finished/delivered product on behalf of the City and its residents
• We understand the construction process. We are familiar with contractors’ strengths and weaknesses and know how to address the weaknesses to obtain a satisfactory project
• We provide contractors with specifications that are highly structured and clearly outlined so they know what is expected and they can develop their bid accordingly; this reduces extra charges resulting from bid document discrepancies
• We pay attention to the bid schedule so the work is rationally organized; this makes it easier for a contractor to bid, resulting in more favorable unit prices
• We set up the contract documents to be tailored to a type of contractor, e.g., Slurry Seal, A.C. placement and other specialty contractors to improve manageability and reduce overhead and mark ups