Every three to four years, the McAllen Engineering Department organizes a team of individuals to assess and review the pavement conditions of the streets of McAllen. The team drives and analyzes all city streets, and ranks them based on a ranking system created to prioritize streets that show advanced levels of deterioration. The list of prioritized streets is then divided into separate years scheduled to be repaved.
The project consists of removing one inch of existing asphalt, either entirely along the street, or about six feet from the gutter. Any signs of base failures are then repaired. Next, the paving crew uses a Hot in Place recycling method which heats and scarifies existing pavement to a one inch depth, applying a recycling agent to restore viscosity of the aged asphalt. This material is mixed and laid to form a leveling course, over which a new one inch asphalt mat is placed and compacted.