The Green Bay Improvement and Services Committee voted to approve a $70,000 purchase so the Department of Public Works can use automated transportation-infrastructure mapping software to complete the city’s biannual PASER road ratings.

The PASER (pavement surface evaluation and rating) system assigns road-condition scores from 1 (needs full reconstruction) to 10 (new). Assistant Director of Public Works Jim Burnett told the committee the software breaks streets into 30-foot segments, independently rates each segment, and then averages segments to create a streetwide score, reducing rater subjectivity.

“PASER provides a numerical rating from 1 to 10,” Burnett said. He described the manual process as requiring two employees (one driver and one evaluator) and about 560 person-hours to complete the citywide ratings every odd-numbered year, work that “cuts into our productivity every other year.”

Public Works Director (name not specified) told the committee the department ran a five-mile trial this year and found “the correlation between the computer generated data and our manual data was very, very close.” He said the software would reduce staff time from roughly 560 hours to approximately 100 hours for a ratings cycle and would help mitigate inconsistencies from staff turnover.

“This isn’t about saving money,” the Public Works Director said. “I don't often come to you and tell you it's a good idea to spend more money. But in this case, I think it is.”

Committee members asked whether the data could be integrated into the city’s GIS and whether the data would be accessible to the public; the director said GIS layers could be published if they are corroborated with existing systems, but how digestible raw output would be for the public was “not known.” Burnett and the director said the mayor had previously supported trials of similar technology and that the department is aligning the purchase with the city’s data-management strategy.

The committee approved the request; the director said the finance committee gave conditional approval for a budget amendment to reallocate unspent salary lines to consultant services so the purchase can be made this year, and that the matter will go to the common council for final vote.

The software will be used for the 2025 odd-year PASER rating cycle and the department said the $70,000 would cover the current required cycle. Funding and budgeting for future cycles will be addressed in upcoming budget years.