Pavement Management is More Than Software

In this article Kansas City, Missouri’s pavement management program is described in detail, specifically from the point of view of its overall practical strategy for pavement maintenance. The city employs four full-time pavement engineers to rate the city’s 2,200 centerline miles of roadway. In 2006, the city resurfaced 360 of those miles and slurry sealed 50 miles, both of which were based from the ratings collected and maintained by its pavement maintenance technicians who attempt to rate at least one third of the city’s streets via walk-through inspection per annum. While previously the city automatically resurfaced roadways on a rigid schedule, it can now, with its comprehensive approach, only resurface those roadways with sagging ratings. The city has the capability to conduct testing both in a laboratory and in the field using nuclear density gauges.