STATUS OF HIGHWAY CONDITION SCORING IN NEW YORK STATE

In this paper highway condition rating methods and results in New York State, as of the summer of 1983, are summarized. The focus of the paper is on procedures that the New York State Department of Transportation uses to assess the condition of highways in the state, and to provide that information in an accurate, rapid, and consistent fashion. The history of highway condition assessment in New York is briefly reviewed, and activities in scoring are described. Improvements in training procedures, tests of field consistency, improvements in data processing, and similar activities that are being undertaken in other agencies are reviewed. Results indicate that the overall condition of New York's 15,750-mile Touring Route System is generally good, but that 13 percent of road surfaces and 17 percent of road bases are rated in poor condition. It is concluded that the highway condition rating procedures used in New York are currently moving into a "shake-down" phase, where required improvements are less from year to year and results are generally satisfactory.