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Heath staff demonstrates pavement condition index tool; council asks staff to draft multi‑year road program
Summary
City staff showed a GIS‑linked pavement condition index (PCI) that scores roads from 0–100 and can be used to prioritize repairs. Council asked staff to add traffic and usage data, identify high‑impact repairs and return with a phased, budgeted program for the next budget cycle.
At the Jan. 28 meeting the Heath City Council received a presentation and live demonstration of a pavement condition index (PCI) and mapping tool that scores streets on a 0–100 scale to help prioritize road maintenance and rehabilitation.
Why it matters: Council members said they want a data‑driven, multi‑year street program that ties budget requests to specific streets and measurable targets rather than ad hoc repairs. The PCI is intended to be an objective, repeatable basis for that work.
Mr. Creed (staff) demonstrated the vendor's system, which visually maps each city road and assigns a PCI score. He explained the typical bands used in pavement management (for example, 85–100 = very good; 71–85 = satisfactory; 50–70 = fair; 41–55 = poor; 26–40 = very poor; 11–25 = serious; 0–10 = effectively no road). Using the map, staff can click either a line rating for an entire street segment or a point‑score to highlight specific cracking, potholes or spalling.
Mr. Creed said the vendor drove and scanned city streets and produced point and segment data; he cautioned that the optical scan can be affected by parked cars, shadows or crack sealing and that staff must review point anomalies. He noted the data is a "slice in time" and that rescans can show year‑to‑year changes as the program is implemented.
Council direction and next steps: Council members asked staff to incorporate traffic counts and use‑based prioritization so low‑use roads with poor condition do not automatically outrank high‑use arterials. Staff said traffic normalization is possible by combining PCI shape files with the city's GIS and traffic‑count data; some traffic counts may require a separate contract. Council asked staff to produce a phased plan showing the cost to bring the city's roads to a chosen PCI target (for example, 70 or 75) and to show what the currently budgeted road repair funds would accomplish.
Staff described other program benefits including linking PCI to the city's CIP and to the work‑order system so resident complaints and completed projects can be displayed in the GIS over time. No formal council action was taken; council members generally praised the tool and asked staff to return with a prioritized, budgeted multi‑year plan.
Ending: Staff said the PCI will be used to rank candidate projects for the budget cycle and that a phased proposal will be provided to council for prioritization as part of the upcoming budget process.
