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William T. Sunley
MANAGING YOUR
TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES

By WILLIAM T. SUNLEY, Engineer of Local Roads and Streets

How do you determine what needs to be done on your street/highway system, and when? Depending on the type of system involved and available resources, the answer to this question could vary from an occasional drive-through to an elaborate computerized data analysis system. Our response to this question three or four years from now will likely be altogether different from the way we answer today.

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 required the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations for state development, establishment and implementation of six management systems. The regulations were issued in December of 1993 in interim final form. These systems are to manage: 1) federal-aid highway pavements, 2) bridges on all public roads, 3) highway safety, 4) traffic congestion, 5) public transportation facilities and equipment, and 6) intermodal transportation facilities and systems.

The first three management systems have the greatest effect on the local highway and street systems. These are pavement management, bridge management, and safety management.

Pavement Management Systems (PMS)

A pavement management system (PMS) is a systematic process of gathering and analyzing pavement information for use as a tool in the development of construction and maintenance programs. A PMS is required for all federal-aid highways in the state. This includes most county highways and many municipal streets.

The regulations state that local PMS's may be tailored to meet state and local needs. The purpose of this provision is to allow flexibility in developing the system so that its level of complexity matches the type of system that it covers.

The amount of information required to maintain a PMS again would depend on the type of highway or street network involved. As a minimum, we expect that this will include the following:

1. Data collection and management (physical pavement features, project history by route, condition surveys, traffic data).

2. Analyses that relate condition to performance and results in investment strategies (recommended projects and preservation treatments).

The required schedule for implementation is:

— October 1, 1994—State must develop work plan.

— October 1, 1995—PMS must be implemented on the National Highway System (NHS).

— October 1, 1997—PMS must be implemented on non-NHS system (this includes local streets and highways).

Bridge Management Systems (BMS)

Similar to PMS, a bridge management system (BMS) is a tool that supplies data analyses, predictions and recommendations for implementation of maintenance and construction within available funds. A BMS will be required to cover all bridges open to the public. Thus, all bridges on the local roads and streets system must be included.

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has formed a BMS Committee and retained a consultant to perform an investigative study, which has been completed. The purpose of this effort was to determine how a bridge management system could be integrated into the IDOT organization and operations. Local

March 1994 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 9


agency engineers from the county and municipal sectors were consulted during this investigation.

There are three study phases remaining to be undertaken. These will entail a definition of our requirements, system design, and implementation. The objective of IDOT is to set up mechanisms to include local bridges in our BMS and to give local agencies direct access to bridge inventory and condition data.

The required schedule for implementation is:

— October 1,1994—State must develop work plan.

— October 1, 1995—System design completed.

— October 1, 1998—BMS implementation.

The department anticipates that this schedule will be met. There are, however, some obstacles to overcome. One that impacts local agencies is the collection of data needed to operate a BMS. This data will likely be more detailed than that currently furnished to IDOT by local agencies.

The consultant's report identifies a need to determine local agency responsibilities for bridge inspection and quality of data collection, local data analysis needs, and strategy for implementation. In order to overcome any obstacles and to determine the degree of local involvement in BMS, we will be working closely with representatives of the municipal, county and township policy organizations during the remainder of this study.

Highway Safety Management System (SMS)

A highway safety management system (SMS) is a process that has the goal of reducing the number and severity of traffic accidents. This is accomplished by ensuring that all opportunities to improve highway safety are identified, considered, implemented as appropriate and evaluated in all phases of highway planning, design, construction and maintenance.

A SMS is required for all public roads. Thus, this covers all local highway and street systems. The regulations do say that the systems may be tailored to be consistent with the functional classification of the network involved. This implies that a degree of flexibility will be allowed in the type of SMS developed for local systems.

Even though we expect some latitude in system complexity for local roads and streets, there will be a basic level of information required. As a minimum, we expect that this will likely include items such as accident data, traffic data, pedestrian counts, enforcement activities and bicycle usage.

The required schedule for implementation is:

— October 1,1994—State must develop work plans.

— October 1,1996—SMS must be implemented.

Summary

The six management systems are required by law to be implemented in every state. The law also carries provisions for funding sanctions against any state which does not comply with the implementation schedule,

Illinois has already begun work on the development of some of the systems. We are now approaching the policy groups of the Illinois Association of County Engineers, Illinois Municipal League, and Township Highway Commissioners to request representatives to work with us in developing the work plans.

As is often the case, we tend to view new mandates such as these management systems to be additional burdens on our already taxed personnel and fiscal resources, and an obstruction to carrying out our mission. Rather than resistance, our attitude now needs to be to develop these systems in a way that makes them a useful tool to us.

Credits to: Darrell W. McMurray, Local Project Implementation Engineer.

Page 10 / Illinois Municipal Review / March 1994


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