By Megan Ma

The Los Altos City Council signed off on one major completed street improvement project and announced preliminary plans for future pavement resurfacing projects at its March 28 meeting.

The council accepted the completion of its 2004-2005 biennial street slurry seal project that covered 127 residential roadways throughout the city. The project, awarded to Bond Blacktop, came in under the budgeted $308,650.

The completed project is part of the city’s ongoing effort to slurry seal 25 percent of all residential and low-traffic streets every two years to provide a new surface-wearing course. The goal is to complete all the city streets in eight years.

Slurry seals are a mixture of emulsified asphalt, fine gray aggregate, mineral filler, water and other additives. They fill minor cracks, restore the pavement surface and extend the life of a roadway for about five-to-seven years, depending on the type and volume of traffic.

Motorists can expect street closures in July with additional resurfacing and pothole patching planned for next year. Larry Lind, associate civil engineer for the city, is scheduled to provide a preliminary list of those residential streets at the Tuesday council meeting.

Meanwhile, the city has allotted approximately $500,000 from its Capital Improvement Program to resurface Grant Road in spring 2007. The repairs on Grant will extend between Foothill Expressway and Fremont Avenue and include repair of the intersection of Grant and Fremont.

The work is expected to occur over 1 1/2 months. Resurfacing involves applyingan asphalt overlay, which usually varies in thickness from 1.5 to 3 inches and provides a structural benefit to the roadway section, Slurry sealing fills in gaps with a thin layer of asphalt mixture.