Dennis Polhill

PUBLIC WORKS MAGAZINE, January 1987

Evaluating a Pavement Management System

DENNIS POLHILL, P.E.

Mr. Polhill is Vice President, Pavement Management Systems, Denver, Colorado.

It’s benefits once debated, pavement maintenance has now been accepted as an essential element of public works. The public works profession can now turn its attention to the implementation of pavement management, or managing the management system. This not only involves the selection of a first-time system, but also the improvement, refinement, or rejection of a presently used system.

Numerous questions surround pavement management systems:

• How much should be spent on pavement management?

• What features are most important?

• What part of pavement management should be installed first?

• What options exist to minimize costs?

• What are the set-up costs?

• What are the long term operational costs?

• What in-house resources are required to operate the system?

• Can the system be set up with in-house resources?

• Must a consultant be used?

• With what level of precision can future conditions be estimated?

• Of what advantage is some particular piece of equipment?

• How much data is enough?

• Are structural tests necessary? How many?

• Can a visual-based system operate?

• What is traded off when sample units are used?

• How do I write a request for proposals?

• What is a viable selection criteria?

• What about computer hardware and software?

• What should the new management system tell me?

• What are the advantages of “canned” or off-the-shelf programs?

• How much customization is appropriate?

• What should this management system tell me about the new “miracle” products in the paving industry?

If you are a pavement manager looking for your first system, these questions may overwhelm you and prevent you from taking action. It has been said that truth lies in simplicity; an understood system is a “simple” system. If one implements this simple system, a structure for gaining knowledge about the effects of using the system will have been established. Do not be embarrassed by selecting a simple system. The entire public works profession is learning about these systems. The sooner a city implements a system, the sooner it will become more knowledgeable and the sooner it will realize the opportunity to capture the cost savings. The advice here is: Take action, select a system, and keep it simple.

Cost or Exactness?

In managing the management system, one concept that can help clarify our thought process is the trade off between cost and exactness. This trade off is a nemesis to managers. It follows them around and attaches itself to virtually every decision rnanagers are asked to make. A simple cost-exactness graph can be applied for comparison of total pavement management systems or for comparison of individual components such as deflection testing, visual ratings, data analysis, etc.

For example, there are dozens of visual rating systems available from various sources. Each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. As a manager, you must select a system for implementation by your organization. First, you must know what data is most important to you. If it is wheel patch cracking, the measure of exactness might be a percent of accuracy that the visual system can maintain. Plot the cost versus exactness for each system on a simple graph. A range of accuracy and costs may be available from the same source. These sources will plot as lines or points on the graph (Figure 1). Now you must know the percent of accuracy you desire. Then choose the system that best fits your cost and accuracy needs.

The same graph can be applied to structural data (Figure 2). Nondestructive testing, usually in the form of deflection testing, has become popular because of the amount of data that is produced at a relatively low cost. However, the cost-exactness trade-off decisions do not go away. Pavements tend to be very non-homogeneous. Thus, more deflection tests are necessary to increase exactness. The manager must know what the data will be used for and what degree of exactness is required to make a decision from the graph.

Pavement management has come a long way and its benefits are now widely acknowledged. Public works professionals are now focusing on finding the answers to questions arising from managing the pavement management system. This will be an evolutionary process that will produce better and more sophisticated methods.

Colorado Engineering. January 1987

Privatization of Public Works
by Dennis Polhill

The infrastructure Colorado’s Pubic Works is falling into increasing disrepair. There is a serious shortfall of money in the public sector to pay for replacement of aging utilities, public buildings, institutions and roadways. There is a movement in numerous other States for the privatization of these public works allowing private investment and operation of these facilities.

Yet Colorado lags far behind in this effort and as of yet has not ventured into this concept. How do you feel about privatization of public works and if in favor of it, what do you think needs to be done to encourage it?

The issue simply is “How best can various services be supplied.” If privatization offers the potential of greater efficiencies, then privatization is a service delivery option that must be looked into by public works managers. Privatization doesn’t mean government will go away. The only thing that changes is the way government conducts its business. When methods can be employed that offer greater efficiencies, more or better services can be provided and overall economic efficiency improves. Overall economic efficiency is what sets the limit on the standard of living that we all enjoy. None of us has anything to gain by encouraging anything but the highest level of efficiency.

Government works under a disadvantage. Inherent within government are various institutional mechanisms that are not conductive to decisive decision-making and operational efficiency. Government is full of people who are frustrated, because their full potential is underutilized.

• In 1974 Cornell University under an EPA Grant, performed an exhaustive comparison of private sector vs. public sector trash collection. For equivalent service public sector service delivery was 67% more expensive.

• Street lighting service is provided most efficiently when the capital facility is owned by government, but operation and maintenance is contracted.

• In California Proposition 13 forced government to be more aware of the “true” cost of doing business. Alternative delivery mechanisms are a way of life. Intergovernmental contracts are common. Most municipal engineering is contracted to consultants. In some cases the entire public works function is contracted to a management consultant who subcontracts the various functions. Contracting of Non-Public Works functions is occurring.

The challenge of the future is to manage public works more efficiently by exercising more creativity. One of our tools is privatization. Privatization must evolve, as we build a new body of professionals: the private sector public works managers. As much as government can benefit from private sector initiative, the concept of privatization of public works cannot succeed without the insights and experience of practicing public works managers. Thus, the private sector public works manager must evolve. He will be one who draws from both the public sector and private sector experience to insure that services are delivered efficiently and effectively.

Privatization has a place in the future of public works management. The sooner we recognize and acknowledge this, the sooner we can get on with the challenge of making things work better.