SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING COUNTY ROAD PROJECT PRIORITIES

Although more and more counties are realizing the value of systematic procedures to evaluate the condition of their highway networks and to establish priorities for candidate road projects, many of them are finding that they lack the data, background, and budget to implement a more comprehensive pavement management system (PMS). This paper reports the experiences of a county with a large network and a small budget, and its desire to implement a needs and priority-setting process that is fair, data efficient, and easy for any interested citizen to understand. Three simplified ranking procedures were developed or adopted: the index method, percentile method, and successive-subsetting method. Each method embodied a different combination of strengths and weaknesses, which gave them considerable value when used as a group. There was also remarkable agreement among the three methods when applied to the large, actual database. Not only are the three methods capable of working well with sparse data, they can be and have been used to direct the data collection efforts of a county that lacks up-to-date data. Two more sophisticated multicriteria ranking or optimization techniques were adapted to this problem for comparison with the three simplified methods, but the results did not justify the extra complexity of analysis. Finally, the value of the three simplified methods as steppingstones to multiyear PMS approaches is pointed out.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1987/1124/1124-002.pdf
• Record URL:
  • https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=SIMPLIFIED+PROCEDURES+FOR+DETERMINING+COUNTY+ROAD+PROJECT+PRIORITIES&author=J.+Shaffer&author=J.+Fricker&publication_year=1987
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Transportation Programming, Planning, and Systems Evaluation. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
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  Transportation Research Board

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• Authors:
  • Shaffer, Joseph L
  • Fricker, Jon D
• Publication Date: 1987

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 8-16
• Monograph Title: TRANSPORTATION NEEDS, PRIORITIES, AND FINANCING
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 1124
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: County roads; Methodology; Pavement management systems; Project management; Ratings; Strategic planning
• Uncontrolled Terms: Projects
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Pavements; Planning and Forecasting; I10: Economics and Administration; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00468752
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0-309-04504-5
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: May 31 1988 12:00AM