FEASIBILITY OF USING AUTOMATED DISTRESS DATA IN THE COUNTY NEED STUDY

The purpose of this project was to determine the feasibility of using pavement condition data collected for the Iowa Pavement Management Program (IPMP) as input to the Iowa Quadrennial Need Study. The need study, conducted by the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) every four years, currently uses manually collected highway infrastructure condition data (roughness, rutting, cracking, etc.). Because of the Iowa DOT's 10-year data collection cycles, condition data for a given highway segment may be up to 10 years old. In some cases, the need study process has resulted in wide fluctuations in funding allocated to individual Iowa counties from one study to the next. This volatility in funding levels makes it difficult for county engineers to plan and program road maintenance and improvements. One possible remedy is to input more current and less subjective infrastructure condition data. The IPMP was initially developed to satisfy the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) requirement that federal-aid-eligible highways be managed through a pavement management system. Currently all metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in Iowa and 15 of Iowa's 18 RPAs participate in the IPMP. The core of this program is a statewide data base of pavement condition and construction history information. The pavement data are collected by machine in two-year cycles. Using pilot areas, researchers examined the implications of using the automated data collected for the IPMP as input to the need study computer program, HWYNEEDS. The results show that using the IPMP automated data in HWYNEEDS is feasible and beneficial, resulting in less volatility in the level of total need between successive quadrennial need studies. In other words, the more current the data, the smaller the shift in total need.

• Record URL:
  http://www.ctre.iastate.edu/reports/county_need.pdf
• Record URL:
  http://publications.iowa.gov/id/eprint/16405
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Iowa State University, Ames

  Center for Transportation Research and Education
  2711 South Loop Drive, Suite 4700
  Ames, IA  United States  50010-8664

  Iowa Department of Transportation

  800 Lincoln Way
  Ames, IA  United States  50010
• Authors:
  • Maze, T
  • Smadi, O
  • Resler, J
• Publication Date: 1998-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 30 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automatic data collection systems; Computer programs; Counties; Databases; Feasibility analysis; Maintenance management; Needs assessment; Pavement distress; Pavement management systems
• Uncontrolled Terms: Fund allocation; Pavement conditions
• Geographic Terms: Iowa
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Pavements; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways; I23: Properties of Road Surfaces;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00760520
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Iowa Department of Transportation
• Report/Paper Numbers: TR-418,, Final Report
• Files: TRIS, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Mar 22 1999 12:00AM