Every year, crews conduct repairs on worn-out streets in Santa Maria.
Agnes Street is one of the roads in Santa Maria selected for major improvements.
That's where the Liendo family lives.
Azariah Liendo says the rough road has caused constant tire damage to their vehicles.
“We’ve lived at this house on the corner for 45 years. This is the first time we’ve seen this [road work], and we really like it, honestly,” Liendo said.
The City Of Santa Maria is investing $1.9 million dollars in its annual street maintenance surface seal program.
“This is tax dollars at work, this is gas tax,” explained Mark van de Kamp, public information manager for the City of Santa Maria.
According to the city, construction crews will apply 600,000 square yards of surface seal.
“We are rehabilitating about 24 center miles of streets to prolong their life," van de Kamp said. “We are doing that with chip seal, which is a mix of asphalt and tiny rock.”
Most of the streets that will get this upgrade are in northwestern neighborhoods.
Among those that will be affected are:
- Main Street from Suey Road to Dressler Avenue
- Railroad Avenue from Donovan to Canal
- Battles Road from Broadway to Bradley
- College Drive from Betteravia to McCoy Lane
- Bradley Road from Betteravia to Crossroads
- Alvin Avenue from Railroad Avenue to Blosser
- Donovan from Blosser to Railroad Avenue
While the work is underway, it can be inconvenient for residents because they cannot park in active construction areas. The city said it has notified affected residents about the streets that will be closed off.
"It started by Donovan and traffic is pretty bad,” said Karen Martinez, who had to park her vehicles around the corner. “We can’t even park outside. Two cars got towed away.”
Neighbors said it is not just traffic and parking.
“It started at 7 in the morning, and I have a little one, so as soon as he heard it, he just automatically woke up,” Martinez added. “It gets noisy.”
The city is asking for patience as the project moves forward.
“We just ask the public, it’s a temporary inconvenience, do some detours, you want to make sure you don’t get this grit on your vehicles,” van de Kamp said.
The City of Santa Maria is planning to move quickly from street to street and the goal is for this whole project to be completed by the end of October.
