Many large metropolitan areas have initiated pavement management systems during the last several years, as scarce resources and rapidly deteriorating roadways have necessitated cautious and efficient expenditures of tax dollars. Such management helps to prevent accelerated street deterioration through an active preventive maintenance program. Not only is the life span of streets increased, but fewer dollars are spent for repair and construction.

But how does a small city find the dollars to finance a testing program that will provide this kind of management system? Small city street maintenance budgets usually are not adequate for handling necessary rehabilitation, let alone an active preventive maintenance program.

Hartland, Wisconsin, a town of 6,500 people, with a paved street system of 24 miles, decided to look the problem squarely in the eye and initiate a long-range pavement management plan. Even though the cost of the testing and analysis program could have funded 1.5 miles of repair, the Town Council engaged the services of Pavement Management Systems of Denver to establish a 10-year maintenance and rehabilitation plan.

Town Administrator Robert Schaumleffel, who spearheaded the move to the maintenance plan, cites experience in Thermopolis, Wyoming, where that city is saving 5100,000 a year in immediate benefits – 16 percent of the total street budget. He says timely, cost-effective rejuvenation and resurfacing programs were implemented in Thermopolis before rapid deterioration began, thus extending pavement life for a fraction of the cost experienced previously.

“Most cities wait in order to save dollars,” Schaumleffel says. “We feel that the increase in cost for waiting two or three years beyond that critical point in the deterioration curve is something more like 10 times rather than the popularly quoted fivefold increase. The reports allowed Thermopolis to establish those critical points in a pavement’s life cycle, thus saving thousands of dollars over just a three-year period.”

Hartland expects to realize similar results, Schaumleffel says. Accurate testing, coupled with a reliable prediction model for determining pavement deterioration rates, will give the city the ability to establish a timely and effective maintenance and rehabilitation program. In addition, the budget projections generated will allow the city to allocate expenses wisely and plan for long-range financial needs. Although the Town Council had to reallocate scarce dollars for a service ~ whose benefits would only be realized as the program develops, long-range savings are expected to more than replenish that relatively small investment.

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