WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD

​Sometimes pavement management is not about selecting rehabs and planning new projects. Sometimes it is about defending those decisions in front of a town council or even an elected official. For those instances, a presentation showing data filled spreadsheet may not quite hit the nail on the head. Luckily, ESA generates several helpful visual aids that can help you demonstrate your pavement management successes, even when your audience sits blissfully unaware of the complexity of the tasks at hand.
 
Condition Graphs
 
The first thing you will want to understand is the pavement condition outputs from ESA. Three of the most helpful can be found in the Summary tab, $Plot tab, and the Current GFP tab.
 
The summary tab breaks down pavement condition by functional classification. Take a look at the example below:

​The summary tab list the pavement condition by pavement type and functional class, it also highlights overall PCI averages and Backlog percentage. Finally the total area is broken down by each of the aforementioned categories. For example: I can see that the Sample network has 48 miles of asphalt local roads that have an average PCI of 78.
 
Next lets look at the $Plot tab. This tab is best used to demonstrate the value of your pavement assets. Sometimes the best way to get someone’s attention about pavement management is to show them that there are millions of dollars at stake.

​The $Plot pie chart shows estimates for various costs associated with pavement work, such as drainage, sidewalk and ramp work, subgrade/base and more. The Miscellaneous costs are often contractor fees, and other such costs associated with doing work in your town. These costs are estimates and are not substitutes for project level design costs, but, nevertheless this is useful to hammer home just how much money your pavement network is currently worth. In our example town above it appears the total network is valued at approximately $124 Million. That is surely one of the town’s most valuable assets.
 
Finally, let’s take a look at the GFP tab and go over what IMS considers the “Metrics of Success”. Take a look at the following graph:

You probably noticed immediately that our example town has a very healthy condition distribution. This network satisfies all three metrics of success, Average PCI, % Excellent and %Backlog.
 
Pavement Condition Index (PCI) – The PCI score is a ranking assessment on the overall health of a pavement segment on a scale of 0 to 100. The network average PCI is a good global indicator of a network’s overall health. The average PCI score from agencies across the country is 60-65. Our example agency above blows way past that with an average PCI of 77.8, so they definitely exceed the first metric.
 
Percent of Excellent Roads – Roads with a condition category of Excellent are those that score between a PCI of 85 to 100. Generally we like to see an agency with around 15% of their in the excellent category. This indicates that the agency has been investing in their pavement network at somewhere near the steady state level. (The level of investment required to maintain the network average PCI) Our Sample network is sitting at 31% excellent roads, satisfying our second metric.

​Backlog –Backlog is the Very Poor and Poor roads (between a PCI of 0 and 40) that represent a portion of the network in need of extensive rehabilitation such as full and partial reconstruction.  Using sound pavement management and finance principles, a very healthy network will have a backlog of 12% or less. The example network above has only 1% backlog, easily satisfying this metric.

Hopefully this gives you enough information to comfortably review and discuss your pavement network’s current condition. Next week we will run our first budget and take a look at some of the outputs.
 

So we have spent some time looking through the tabs ins Easy Street Analysis and discovering some of the pavement management tools that are at your disposal. Before we are ready to run the first analysis, however, it is very common for a municipality to have several committed projects on certain streets in the network. This is referred to as “planned work” and in order for the pavement management system to accurately reflect your network, we want to make sure all of the planned work has been entered into the right place. Let’s take a look at how this is done.
Feel free to follow along the instructions in the video below:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jio0wEaN7WY&t=4s 

Planning Projects

ESA is a powerful pavement management platform, but it is only as good as the information it is given. If you want an accurate pavement rehabilitation plan, you better make sure the system knows any predetermined commitments that the city has made toward pavement projects. The rehabilitation activity, as well as the year the work is planned must be manually entered.
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The first step is to navigate to the Network Analysis tab of the ESA Spreadsheet. Here you will find a long list of segments. Since most planned work tends to utilize multiple segments, lets make sure we sort the data set by project id, so it will be easier for us to plow the data into each one of the segments that will be part of your planned project. (if you need help sorting the projects, be sure to follow along with the step by step instructions in the video linked above) Now make sure the “Committed Projects” column is unhidden. ESA has macro buttons located at the top of the sheet to hide and unhide these columns.

​Now that the segments are sorted by project id, search for the particular id of the project you are looking to manually add work into. It can be helpful to highlight the rows you are working on so you don’t lose track. 

Typically column BU will be the start of the committed projects section. In this column we want to add the year of the planned work. Make sure this information is repeated for each row that will be part of this project.

In the column right next to the year you will need to select the rehab type. This will appear as a long list of numbers that coincide with various rehab types and costs. To find the specific number of the activity you are looking for, jump over to the rehab activities tab and identify the proper rehab code. Make sure you select the rehab code for each of the segments within the selected project.

In the very next column you will have the option of including or excluding this particular project in the analysis. Select 1 to include it, and 0 to exclude it. Make sure this is done for each of the segments within the project.
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Now that you have chosen the year/ rehab type/ segments and enabled the selection to be part of the analysis, simply scroll to the right and look at the selections that typically start in column IW. This information should reflect the selections that you have made so far. Confirm that the information is accurate and, congratulations, you have successfully added your first planned work selections into the ESA Analysis. The final step is to click on the “create Inventory” button on the network analysis tab to refresh the inventory CSV file that is used in the Arc Map project. After a moment, return to Arc Map and turn on the “planned work” filter. You should see your new project with the selected rehab activity and year reflected on the map.

You know your town better than anyone, so now with the ability to schedule planned work within your ESA analysis you are taking your first steps towards a pavement management plan that is uniquely positioned to meet your level of service goals. 
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Next week we will talk about running a budget within the ESA system, and how to interpret some of the graphs and charts that are outputs of the analysis. 

Pavement Managers will tell you that the most important aspect of a road is the base, from which everything else can be built. In our newest series, ESA Essentials, our goal is to provide a strong base of knowledge for users of the IMS Easy Street Analysis application. In this series we will cover all of the essential elements to the ESA pavement analysis software, preparing new and experienced pavement managers, alike, with a strong foundation that provides both clarity and confidence to future pavement management decisions.

This article is a companion piece to the video which can be found in the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqvWgjdHHaE&t=639s

New to Easy Street Analysis

If you are reading this guide than you are probably already aware of the purpose behind the IMS Easy Street Analysis pavement management software, but you may not be aware of the extent of its management capabilities. In this series we will cover all the basics to get your team started.
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While the results of a pavement management survey can certainly be documented into a final report that illustrates the findings, IMS believes it is imperative that City staff have access to the pavement condition and analysis results without having to become software experts themselves. That is why Easy Street Analysis exists as a fully functional pavement management program that is housed in user-friendly, interactive spreadsheet.

In this first article we will cover some of the tabs users will want to understand the very first time they open ESA.

Keeping Tabs on ESA

The first tab you are likely to see when opening ESA is known as the “Tab of Tabs”. It is simply and index of the various tabs available in the program, with details on each one. Keep this in mind as an index if you happen to be looking for specific information or functionality.

The Summary Tab – As Mark Kramer puts it in the companion video to this article “This is where you will find answers to all the questions your managers office, directors or council members will ask.” It includes facts about the network, such as mileage and PCI of each functional class as well as total network backlog percentage and total mileage. This is a great starting place to pull some basic information about your networks condition.

Definitions – The pavement management industry is full of acronyms that you will find throughout ESA  as well as in a pavement management report. This tab is a quick refresher just in case you forgot what, say, "FWM" stands for. (Full Width Mill)

Comps – This tab includes some quick budgeting estimates that can be helpful planning tools both before the analysis is completed, and to check the results of the completed analysis. These are often referred to as “bar napkin math” estimates, but don’t let that fool you. They are often very accurate in determining a budget range that the city should strive to meet. There are 3, one based on total network value, one based on average condition, and one based on various rehab rates for your city and the surrounding area.

$Plot – This is your asset value estimate tab. Here you will see the breakdowns of reconstruction costs for your entire network, as well as its estimated total value. We like to refer to the pavement network as the most valuable visible asset in a city. This tab will demonstrate why that is the case by breaking down construction costs.

Equity Removal – The chart on this tab breaks down the costs associated with underfunding at various budget levels. The idea is that an underfunded pavement network will accrue additional costs to the city that will need to eventually be repaid. This table is a helpful visual aid to show the cost of underfunding.

Network Analysis – This is where all of the calculations are done. We will go way more in depth on this tab in a later article, but for now just know that this tab is where you will add planned work and run annual budgets through the analysis.

Parameters – This is where the parameters are set for the analysis. Again, we will focus on this tab much more later, but this is where you will set naming conventions for functional classes / set GFP ranges / identify rehab prioritizations and more.

Rehab Activities – This tab shows a summary of all rehabilitation types as well as rates by functional class. These are usually broken down in cost per square yard.

Inventory – This tab is a collection of every street segment and a breakdown of the survey condition and recommended rehab to restore the segment to full service. Each segment is organized by GISID and includes from and to streets. The condition breakdown also describes each surveyed distress on a 1-10 severity scale.

Rehab by Segment/Year – These two tabs show an export of whatever budget run was most recently done in the network analysis tab. It will show you recommended rehabs and estimated costs per segment and per year.

Helpful Visual Aids

The next selection of tabs will display a series of graphs that are visual representations of the information contained in the inventory and rehab by segment/year tabs:

Annual PCI – This graph shows the resulting PCI at various budget levels

GFP/PCI post rehab – These graphs show the post rehab condition of the network depending on the budget information loaded into the network analysis tab.

Survey PCI and Current PCI – While the survey PCI tab will show the condition breakdown at the time of the survey, the current PCI tab will show the PCI that is aged appropriately to the date that is set in the network analysis tab.

So there we have an overview of some of the tabs that ESA users will become familiar with. That should be enough to digest for now. Next week we will begin our deep dive into the specifics of how to get an ESA analysis up and running for your city, including scheduling planned work manually in the Network analysis tab. 

​Pavement management is not just about prolonging the lifespan of a road, but also optimizing the effectiveness of a budget. Every municipality has a unique pavement network. There are varying types of construction, pavement types, and functional classes. Many municipalities maintain a network of paved pedestrian pathways or bike paths in addition to their roads. Finding out what you have and what you need is only the first part of the process.
 
Less than 1% of agencies around the US have an annual budget that is large enough to rehabilitate their entire pavement network to excellent condition within a short 5-10 year window. This means that tough decisions need to be made about which pavement segments require urgent repairs, and which ones can be deferred until a later time. Pavement rehabilitations require significant investments by the city, and so the decision to defer some roads or rehabilitate others is not a trivial one. City managers want to make sure they are making determinations based on data driven factors and sound pavement management principals.
 
When Data Driven Decisions Save You Millions
 
The average municipality has nearly 200 centerline miles of pavement surface; divide that up by varying functional classes, pavement types, traffic and distress patterns and you may quickly arrive at thousands of unique pavement surfaces in a single town. All must be considered for potential rehabilitation. That magnitude of factors that require consideration simply cannot be adequately addressed without the aid of pavement management software.
 
When pavement management software is in use, the entire pavement network with distress and severity can be applied to a model of the city’s budget. This can ultimately provide the city with a proverbial road map of needed repairs based on the unique budget and street network conditions. This data driven process can be easily defended as the best practice, and can often help a municipality secure additional federal or state funding when it is desperately needed.
 
It is difficult to know what the future holds, but maintaining a 5-10 year plan that is based on best pavement management practices and defensible data can go a long way toward saving your city valuable tax-dollars and improving the level of service in your community.