About the Project

The City of Bozeman, Montana, partnered with APTech, established two primary goals for this project. The first was to complete a pavement condition assessment for approximately 242 centerline miles of roadway and update the City’s PAVER database. The second was a detailed comparison between the 2013 assessment and this current work in an effort to assess the effectiveness of the City’s street maintenance program. The City also asked APTech to provide recommendations where appropriate for possible improvement moving forward.

APTech’s for this project work included:

• Reviewing and updating the current PAVER database with new roadways and any work history done since the last update

  • The updated shape file was then used to prepare for condition data collection

• Collecting data using the Enhanced Data Gathering Equipment (EDGE) automated data collection van

• Conducting distress surveys, which identified cracking and other distresses on the images

• Performing additional reviews by trained surveyors to validate the automated process and confirm the results aligned with ASTM D6433

  • The outcome was then tabulated by distress type, severity, and extent by road segment

• Preparing the longitudinal profile, summarized as International Roughness Index, and rutting measurements

• Loading the distress data and rutting into PAVER to calculate the pavement condition index (PCI)

• Comparing the 2013 and current pavement conditions

  • This allowed APTech to comment on the effectiveness of the City’s street maintenance program

• Proving treatment strategies and opportunities for improvement

The assessment provided the City with an updated PAVER pavement management system (PMS) database to use in work planning and budgeting, an objective review of maintenance program effectiveness, and recommendations for improved strategies that make more effective use of agency resources. These deliverables will help the City make accountable, data-driven, performance-based decisions about needs.