Coordinated Pavement Management System between Municipalities and State in Rhode Island

Abstract

State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation (RI) has 6,052 miles roadways: 1,098 miles State-maintained highways, 4,766 miles cities and towns-maintained roadways, 188 miles for other jurisdictions. Most transportation agencies are using their own pavement management system (PMS); however, the coordinated system for state highways and municipally maintained roads appears to be absent. Thus, a coordinated effort has been made successfully among state, municipalities and academia in RI. A standardized PMS with MicroPAVER™ was established for Kingston campus at University of Rhode Island (URI) to help the implementation for cities and towns in 1988. URI team suggested to evaluate only one representative sample unit per section. Condition survey has been performed for 30 years, and current and future condition were determined and predicted for URI campus, respectively. Maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) strategies were established and budget analysis was performed for needed cities and towns. Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) adopted a PMS based on surface condition as well as roughness from 1985. Like MicroPAVER™ pavement condition index (PCI), RIDOT developed and calculated pavement structural health indices (PSHIs) for each 1/10th of mile segment of highway. Gradually RIDOT has been using Deighton Total Infrastructure Management System (dTIMS™) as its PMS for state-maintained highways since 1993. To coordinate two systems, MicroPAVER™ and dTIMS™ were used for network of Cranston city and RI state highway in the present study, respectively. Hope that this model PMS will stimulate more implementation for other transportation agencies.