Dunwoody Paved More Than 19 Miles of Streets This Summer

Provided by the City of Dunwoody

The City of Dunwoody has spent the summer paving neighborhood streets and building sidewalks. From June to mid-August, city crews paved and resurfaced more than 19 lane miles of neighborhood streets and city roads and constructed 4,000 feet of city sidewalks, completing all of the paving prior to the start of the school year in DeKalb County.

Rains in recent months have only slightly affected planned street paving and sidewalk improvements, an announcement said. The City completed more lane miles in a shorter amount of time than in any previous year.

Dunwoody has invested more than $2,000,000 in paving this year. According to the statement that’s more than 40 percent of the city’s entire 2013 capital budget. Since 2009, including this year’s investments, the city has spent more than $6,500,000 paving the city’s estimated 306 total lane miles of roads in Dunwoody.

Dunwoody has paved more than 50 lane miles of roads, fixed 1,100 potholes on City streets and laid or repaired more than 4 miles of City sidewalks all within the 13.2 total square miles of the City’s boundaries.  This has been accomplished in a relatively short timeframe with no tax increases and no need to borrow money.

As a comparison, the city of Atlanta allocated approximately $4 million in 2011 on road paving and resurfacing and it is estimated Atlanta city crews and contractors annually pave about 18 miles of the city’s roughly 1,700 lane miles of road, the statement said. 

Roads to be repaved were selected based on the results of the 2009 Citywide Pavement Evaluation which provided a numerical condition rating between 0-100 for all of the roads in the city. The analysis was completed using a special truck equipped with lasers for crack detection, video and computer equipment as well as an accelerometer to measure overall roughness and fluctuations in road and street levels.  Later this year the city will be updating the 2009 assessment with a new citywide pavement survey, assisting in future road and street repair prioritizations. 

The road pavement condition ratings are used as part of a “worst-first” paving prioritization process.  The “worst-first” process employs a council-backed policy which gathers the most highly-trafficked main roads and streets and allocates 70 percent of annual paving budget funds to address the worst-ranked roads within this group.  The remaining 30 percent of the annual paving budget is assigned by priority to the worst ranked roads within a separate neighborhood and small-streets grouping.

The city expects the latest pavement condition analysis update to be completed by the end of the year.  The city’s paving plans are available for review by visiting the City’s website at: http://www.dunwoodyga.gov/Departments/Public_Works/Paving .

Work continues on several critical sidewalk projects as part of the City’s sidewalk improvement plan created to provide an objective process to prioritize the City’s sidewalk projects.  The City has identified over 21 miles of future sidewalk improvements and 87 future ADA-compliant sidewalk ramps.  Since 2009, the City has invested nearly $1,000,000 on completing roughly 5.4 miles of new sidewalk infrastructure, making Dunwoody a safer, healthier, and more enjoyable community for all.

For more information on the City's Sidewalk Improvement Policy, including existing and proposed sidewalk maps, please visit the Dunwoody Sidewalk Improvement Plan page on the city’s website at

http://www.dunwoodyga.gov/Departments/Public_Works/Sidewalk_Improvement_Program.