Road Surface Management - Local Road Applications

A: INTRODUCTION The Wisconsin Transportation Technology Transfer Center (Transportation Information Center) has developed a roadway management program for Wisconsin local agencies. This system has been developed in cooperation with local road agency associations and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Wisconsin's pavement management system has evolved from a basically paper system developed in 1987 to a computerized pavement management system coordinated with Wisconsin DOT data base. While many sophisticated pavement management systems have been developed in the past, Wisconsin local governments have been slow to adopt these systems. The sophisticated nature of these programs along with the relatively high implementation costs have been a barrier to their use. The objective of the TIC in developing a new system specifically for local road agencies was to overcome these barriers and encourage local agencies to benefit from information provided by a basic roadway management system. Wisconsin has over 1,950 local government agencies with highway responsibilities (cities, villages, towns, and counties). It was recognized that even a basic pavement management system requires some technical assistance if a local agency is to use this system. Due to the large number of agencies and limited technical staff available to the TIC, a "train the trainer" program has been used from the beginning. The concept is to train people located throughout the state. These resource people would then be able to help their own local agencies implement a pavement management system. These resource people included technical staff with county highway departments, regional planning commissions, University of Wisconsin-Extension staff, Wisconsin DOT staff, and consultants. A major upgrading of the capability of the pavement management system is underway during 1993-94. The computer program is being expanded to provide additional capacity to make future pavement needs projections and provide more comprehensive reports. This work is done in anticipation of the ISTEA requirements for pavement management systems at the local level.