San Diego releases data-driven plan to maintain roads

The City of San Diego has released a Pavement Management Plan in which data has been used to identify specific streets and roads to be prioritised for funding.

The plan has been presented after the city analysed every kilometre of its paved roadway network by lasers and other tools to measure pavement surface distress, such as cracks and potholes.

“This crucial data gives us what we need to make informed strategic investments in our roads and the long-term plan on how to do that,” said Todd Gloria, Mayor of San Diego. “What the Pavement Management Plan reveals is the need for major funding to reverse decades of neglect that allowed our street network to fall into serious disrepair. That’s the work that lies ahead.”

The five-year plan is incorporated into StreetsSD, an interactive webpage that allows residents to see ongoing and future paving projects in their neighbourhoods, and to search information about individual streets.

In 2016 the city’s roads scored 71 points in the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) – with 70 held as the industry “average” standard. The new data has helped better analyse the condition of the roads, and eight years later, conditions have slipped to a “fair” category with a score of 63.

“Having this condition assessment data is crucial for our operations so that our team can be more strategic and cost-effective in allocating limited resources for road repair and maintenance,” said Bethany Bezak, Transportation Department Director. “What the [plan] shows is that significant investment is needed over the long term in order to prevent further deterioration of our roads and to bring San Diego’s PCI score closer to the industry standard where our residents expect us to be as the 8^th largest city in the United States.”

With a network of paved roads, alleyways and unimproved streets, San Diego maintains more than 10,600 lane kilometres of roadway and has the second largest street network in California.

Image: Jay Beiler | Dreamstime.com