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City engineer outlines $8M pavement program, plans automated inventory and favors concrete on life-cycle costs
Summary
City Engineer George Binger presented the 2026 Pavement Management Program on March 9, explaining a multi-pronged maintenance approach, planned spending on 43 lane miles (roughly $8 million for mill/overlay), a move toward life-cycle decisions that often favor concrete, and a planned automated pavement-condition inventory estimated near $125,000.
City Engineer George Binger presented the Lee Summit 2026 Pavement Management Program to the Public Works Committee on March 9, describing the city's strategy to preserve pavement condition and avoid costly full reconstructions.
Binger outlined four core programs: mill-and-overlay, surface seal/microsurfacing, crack sealing and curb replacement. He said the city typically phases work so overlays come first, followed by surface seals, then curb and crack sealing. For 2026 he reported plans to address about 43 lane miles and estimated the mill-and-overlay work alone would approach $8 million. "We're doing 43 lane miles and we're going to spend close to 8 million this year," Binger said.
Binger explained funding sources, noting the program draws primarily on the permanent transportation sales tax (a half-cent sales tax approved in the 1980s) with augmentation for curb work from the 15-year CIP sales tax. He also described the capital budgeting process and how project budgets and contract awards are reconciled with the CIP.
The presentation emphasized life-cycle cost analysis when choosing pavement materials for capital projects. Binger said recent projects frequently show concrete to be the better long-term option after maintenance costs are considered over a 35-year horizon: "Every single time it's concrete," he stated when asked about head-to-head costs.
Staff also described a planned change to how the city assesses pavement condition. The city plans to contract an automated pavement-scanning vendor (referred to as RA/RoadAsset in the presentation) to collect a 100% inventory and generate pavement condition indices. Binger said the cost for that automated inventory has fallen relative to earlier estimates and is "now close to maybe 125,000." He said the field data collection could be completed in about 30 days, with full data processing available by the fall for use in next-year programming.
Committee questions and technical detail Committee members asked whether high oil prices ever make concrete cheaper than asphalt; Binger said there have been head-to-head bid instances in the recent past where concrete and asphalt were comparable and that the city uses oil-price indexing in bids to limit contractor risk and avoid forcing contractors to guess future oil prices. He described procurement as qualification-based for professional services and said construction contracts are bid separately once designs are complete.
Binger walked through construction-level practices—curb replacement sequence, string-line versus GPS paver control, milling to create a compact edge, and limits on truck tonnage on residential streets to protect base layers. He explained that crack sealing is a first defense against potholes, and that surface seals help limit ultraviolet degradation.
Next steps Binger said staff will advertise bids for pavement work this week and anticipates contract awards will return to the committee in April with construction to occur during the summer. The city plans to use the automated inventory for the following year's pavement program.
