Oakland road construction: Here’s how city is tackling its pothole problem under new Department of Transportation leadership

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — If you live in Oakland you know about the city’s pothole problems. The plan to fix the roads is behind schedule. But under a new transportation leader, Oakland hopes to ramp up the work.

In 2021, Oakland’s city council passed a $300 million, five-year plan to fix about 400 miles of roads by 2027. How’s it going so far?

“Ballpark number in the last two years, about 100 (miles),” said Josh Rowan, the now head of Oakland’s Department of Transportation, who arrived three months ago from Altanta.

Oakland may not reach it’s target.

“I feel in some ways, this is like karma for me, because I was in another American city saying, at least we’re not Oakland. It was a national thing, that we knew Oakland had the worst streets in American, and so kudos when the decisions were made to go to the voters to get the money to invest in the infrastructure. Now, it’s our job to deliver and that’s what we intend to do,” Rowan said.

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There’s still much to do.

We went by 36th Street and Market back in April. Today, at the same stretch of road, nothing has improved.

Last April, we measured a huge pothole near Laney College. It’s still there.

Park Boulevard near Highway 13 in April — still the same.

Rowan says there are challenges in city government that need to be addressed.

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The first is the lack of personnel needed to actually coordinate the work of repaving.

“We’re about 30% vacant across most of our departments, so when you pick up the phone and say why isn’t anyone answering, it’s because no one is there,” said Warren Logan, a city planner who’s now running for the city council.

Last April, while riding his bicycle, a pothole, which is still there today, sent Logan to the emergency room.

He says things would move a lot quicker if the city council would give the Transportation Department more authority to do the work without the council having to approve every project.

“We actually do have money to pave our streets. You and I are paying taxes through Measure U to pave our roads, but it does require that your City Council gives the authority to the Department of Transportation to go get a contractor to pave our roads. It’s bureaucracy at it’s finest,” Logan said.

In the meantime, the plan has now shifted slightly to focus on neighborhood streets and underserved communities.