The Results Of The Sudbury Pavement Study: What Does It Mean?

SUDBURY, MA—In 2017, the town hired Vanasse Hangen Brustlin to perform a pavement, sidewalk and guardrail management study to evaluate pavement, sidewalk, and guardrail conditions in Sudbury to come up with a set of priorities and funding for fixing them.

Sudbury recently released the results of that study, which is so comprehensive one might need a degree in engineering to understand the results.

VHB performed distress ratings on 139.6 miles of town-maintained roadway as well as evaluated the condition of the sidewalk and guardrail network. The pavement ratings were completed using the RoadManager system rating formula that is detailed in section two of the report - a 23-page report.

We asked Dan Nason, DPW director, to explain.

"The roads are ranked using a Pavement Condition Index (PCI)," Nason told Patch. "This approach is similar to grading in school where a score of 100 is an “A” (equivalent to a new, recently paved roadway) and a score of 59 is an “F” (meaning the road is in poor condition). "

The results of the PMS is used to identify the treatment of roadways based on their PCI, said Nason. Like maintaining other capital assets, its most cost efficient to perform preventative maintenance - where you get the “best bang for the buck."

"So the principal behind the PMS is to preserve the roadways that are still in good shape to extend the useful life of the pavement, improve ride quality, correct surface defects and improve safety," Nason said. "This methodology is very cost-effective and allows for treating (or resurfacing) more roadway miles with our budget versus spending significantly more money on fully rehabilitating only one or two roads annually. To realize the full benefit of this pavement preservation approach, the DPW will be employing multiple cost-effective surface solutions to our roadway network throughout town. Our intention is to use various surface treatments based on the condition of the roadway. These include crack-sealing, chip-sealing, ultra-thin overlays, mill and overlay, full-depth patching and full-depth reclamation."

While this PMS itemizes the PCI’s for all the roadways it does not specifically identify which roadways are being paved or when, explains Nason.

"This PMS is a critical evaluation tool that is used by the DPW as a guide to define our capital plan," he said. "We then integrate our proposed plan with other utility companies’ (water district, National Grid, Eversource, etc.) capital improvement plans to identify areas where they overlap. Often times a street that is planned to be resurfaced next year may get 'bumped out' to a future year if we know we need to install or upgrade drainage, water services, etc."

The DPW intends to publish its resurfacing plans annually so the community is aware of the roads it will be resurfacing and what specific treatment these roadways will receive.

Photo Credit: Charlene Arsenault