Adapting Local Agency Pavement Management Procedures to Develop a Simplified System for use by Smaller Cities in Washington

Abstract

When Congress passed the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) in 1991, many larger local agencies in the state of Washington had already implemented a pavement management system (PMS). Larger cities and counties had adopted PMS procedures after the University of Washington, working with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), modified the Washington State PMS in the late 1980s to accommodate local agencies. However, very few smaller cities in Washington state have adopted PMS procedures. Because ISTEA requires that all roads eligible for federal aid must be on a PMS, smaller cities that have even only a few segments or sections of Federal-aid roadways are required to have a PMS. In response to that need, the TransAid Service Center of WSDOT, working with a number of smaller cities, has developed a manual that is based on the computerized systems in the state yet can be filled out with pencil and paper. The simplified system should enable metropolitan planning organizations to use the manual system in comparing its results with those of any of the other existing computerized systems. It is WSDOT's intention that even if the management system requirements are suspended, as currently proposed, the simplified system will still be sent out to smaller cities. These agencies will be encouraged to develop projects for transportation improvement plans from the results derived from the simplified systems.