Street resurfacing project smooths roads in Torrey Pines community

In some spots on Mango Drive, the asphalt was was still warm as San Diego City Councilman Joe LaCava took a tour around the block of newly repaved streets.

Last week, the city of San Diego began work on an asphalt resurfacing project encompassing seven miles of streets on 32 different streets in District 1, including a collection of 13 streets in the Torrey Pines community, the neighborhood around Del Mar Hills Academy.

“These were some of the worst in District 1,” said LaCava who saw the streets personally when canvassing neighborhoods during his candidacy. He also heard frequently from local residents about the state of the streets, first paved in the 1970s and patched up over the years but never fully repaved.

The asphalt overlay consists of a new layer of asphalt atop the existing street, a thickness of one to two inches.

(Karen Billing)

Last week the streets were first ground down before the resurfacing. The asphalt overlay consists of a new layer of asphalt atop the existing street, a thickness of one to two inches. Roads like Half Moon Bay Drive, Pinewood Street and Durango Drive will all get the new treatment.

Some streets such as Vantage Way and Bahama Cove were initially left out of the project scope but La Cava said they pushed hard to take care of all of the streets in the neighborhood. While visiting the site with city staff last week, LaCava expressed his appreciation to staff for making it happen and to the contractor Eagle Paving Company for doing the work correctly.

Councilmember Joe LaCava checks out crumbled concrete on Vantage Way.

(Karen Billing)

Though not included in the asphalt scope, a badly crumbled concrete section of Vantage Way will also be addressed with this project.

The work is expected to be completed on this cluster of street resurfacing, which also includes roads in Linda Vista, University and Clairemont Mesa by May.

This year the city of San Diego has placed a focus on the many, many miles of roads in need of repair throughout the city—they are on pace to repair more than 260 miles of roads, including 63 miles being completely resurfaced.

“This mayor and this council is very much committed to street repairs, it’s the number one infrastructure complaint that we have,” LaCava said.

Street resurfacing underway on Mango Drive.

(Karen Billing)