Dallas officials propose data-driven pavement policy, tighten right-of-way rules to protect streets

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee was briefed on the city’s proposed Infrastructure Management Program and linked updates to the right‑of‑way management ordinance that staff said would help preserve pavement and better target repair funding.

Dustin Carley, director of the Department of Transportation and Public Works, told the committee the city maintains about 11,700 lane miles of pavement and roughly 648 bridges and that pavement deterioration “is not linear” — preservation treatments in years five through 10 can prevent rapid decline into failed condition.

Carley said staff plans to adopt a new technical approach that combines ASTM D6433 (the traditional pavement condition‑index survey standard) with ASTM E3303, an automated cracking detection standard. “The ASTM 3303 is introduced as the key component in the technical evaluation,” Carley said, and staff is updating contracts for data‑collection and analysis to integrate the new logic.

Why it matters: Carley said the updated modeling and higher‑frequency data collection will let the city run scenario planning — for example, showing how different funding levels would change the percentage of lane miles in “good” condition — so…