City of Rancho Mirage - PM10 Reduction Program

This project was implemented as an element of the MSRC's Coachella Valley PM10 Reduction Program. MSRC funds were applied as the 11.47% local match towards a qualifying federal Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality (CMAQ) project. CMAQ funds are used for the purpose of dust control and PM10 mitigation in the Coachella Valley, as this region of the South Coast AQMD is non-attainment for particulate matter. Three projects were implemented under the MSRC contract: 1. Post Event Clean-up, which comprises removing wind-blown sand from roadways when it exceed the capability of normal street sweeping operations; 2. Acquisition of a water truck for dust control purposes; and 3. In-fill paving of public dirt roads and the stabilization of road shoulders. The post wind event clean-up occurred on April 12, 2002 on Monterey Avenue, north of Gerald Ford Drive, and then on April 25, 2002 on Dinah Shore east of Bob Hope Drive. Both of these streets are subject to wind blown sand from miles of open desert that is up wind of these sites. The water truck acquistion allowed quick response to reports of dust blowing from public lands or vacant lots where the property owners could not be found or mobilized to control their own dust problems. The paving consisted of installing a 26-foot wide strip of asphalt, with a 7-foot wide oiled gravel shoulder on each side, on a network of dirt roads totaling approximately 1.65 miles in length.