PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT

Pavement Management Program (PMP) Web site

Overview

Purpose of Program

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Pavement Management Program (PMP) StreetSaver® is a computer-assisted decision-making process designed to help cities and counties prevent pavement problems through judicious maintenance, and to diagnose and repair those that exist in a timely, cost-effective manner.

History

In 1981, MTC — the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area — conducted a study that estimated that spending for local roadway maintenance in the region fell short by $100 million a year, and that the Bay Area's 17,000 miles of streets and roads had a deferred maintenance cost in the range of $300 million to $500 million. In response to this study, MTC started its Pavement Management System in six Bay Area communities as a pilot program in 1984. The full program got under way in 1986; it is one of the first in the country to be tailored specifically for cities and counties, rather than for state highways.

Benefits of Program

The benefits of using StreetSaver include the following:

• Local governments can predict the future condition of their pavement for different levels of funding and show the effects of under-funded road programs.
• StreetSaver works as an effective tool for local jurisdictions to both manage and generate street and road revenues.
• On a regional level, as more and more jurisdictions complete their pavement needs analysis using StreetSaver, MTC is able to document the Bay Area's needs and shortfalls and use the data to build support in the state Legislature for increased funding.
• Jurisdictions that have a PMS program in place will be ready to put any available new moneys to their most cost-effective use immediately.

Current Profile

Users of MTC's StreetSaver program today include more than 300 nationwide. Of these:

• 109 are in San Francisco Bay Area cities and counties
• The rest are users from outside the region -- in Southern California and in ten states beyond California's borders. They include universities, national forests and consulting firms that offer MTC's StreetSaver to their clients.

Support Services

MTC's PMS offers its users:

• training sessions and training videos for field evaluation, software use and analysis
• a telephone hotline for technical support
• budget options reports for decision makers
• assistance in making budget presentations to local boards or councils
• technology transfer seminars on pavement practices
• users meetings to exchange information, present software innovations, solicit user input
• a newsletter that covers a range of pavement management issues (Street Talk)
• Web site developed specifically for them: http://www.mtcpms.org.

Legislative Context

California's 1990 transportation blueprint requires that a pavement management system be implemented by cities and counties seeking funding for projects through the State Transportation Improvement Program, the state's seven-year transportation construction and rehabilitation spending plan. Federal legislation also has encouraged use of these management systems.

For more information, or to receive MTC's PMS newsletter, Street Talk, contact Sui Tan at MTC:

Sui Tan
MTC Pavement Management Program
Telephone: 510.817.5844
e-mail: stan@mtc.ca.gov