Pavement management plan starts with road survey

A digital survey vehicle will be traveling the streets of Diamond and Wilmington in the coming week as it collects data for a road assessment and pavement management plan. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning [CMAP] is funding the study and plan development for the two towns.

“We are excited with the opportunity to create a pavement management plan professionally by experts in the field,” Diamond Mayor Terry Kernc said.

The process is slated to begin next week so residents will likely spot the specially equipped van driving up and down city streets.

Data collected from the drive will be used to develop a plan the town leaders can use to schedule roadway upgrades based on pavement conditions.

CMAP has contracted AECOM and Applied Research Associates, Inc. [ARA] to complete the roadway assessment.

ARA will conduct the evaluation with one of its high-tech evaluation vehicles. According to a release from the company,

ARA will navigate its way at posted speed limits through the streets of each town to, “capture high quality digital images and laser data of pavement surfaces.” The data will then be used to perform an analysis of the condition of the roadways.

“Lasers on the digital survey vehicle can measure the change in road surface within two-thousandth of an inch or roughly 1/2 the thickness of a piece of paper in a single pass to identify cracking, rutting, texture, potholes, raveling and roughness,” the company said. The vehicle will also be collecting high definition digital images of the rights-of-way.

Information collected will then be used to develop a street maintenance plan that best fits each community. This could include preventative maintenance, asphalt resurfacing, patching or crack sealing.

Kernc said her community will use the information provided from the survey to develop a long-term road maintenance plan that will start with the most troubled areas.

The CMAP grant covering the cost of the survey does not come with funding for improvements, therefore any upgrades would have to come from the municipality or other funding source.