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Roadway Infrastructure Management for Lee County, Florida.
Lee County maintains over 2,600 centerline miles of pavement and associated assets. In addition, the County must coordinate with the municipalities of Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Sanibel, Bonita Springs, and Fort Myers Beach. In 2001, Lee County hired ARA to provide an objective evaluation of their pavement network and to implement a new pavement management system. Since the initial implementation, ARA has performed updates of the network condition and helped the County implement a management system for their signage.
Pavement Management
The initial data collection effort began in 2001 and was performed using handheld computers (Compaq iPaqs) and a windshield evaluation method based on ASTM D6433 (known as the PAVER or PCI methodology). This method allows for an objective analysis of pavement condition, performed either by ARA at the network level or by County personnel for evaluations between network-level surveys. It also allows the County to track specific issues, such as drainage issues and level of occupancy for a particular residential road. County personnel received training by accompanying ARA technicians and engineers on the surveys.
After a thorough review of the software options available, CartêGraph’s PAVEMENTview Plus was selected to meet the County’s pavement management needs.
In 2005, ARA updated the pavement condition data using its Digital Survey Vehicle (DSV). Using the DSV allowed for the creation of a digital data archive and a survey of roadside assets, particularly signage. Condition data were compared to the data collected in 2001 and were found to be comparable. The PAVEMENTview Plus system was updated with new pavement deterioration models and modified to reflect the rehabilitation alternatives the County was using at that time.
ARA returned to Lee County again in 2009 to update the condition data for the County’s arterial and collector network. The DSV was used to collect data. In this round, ARA has helped County staff answer several difficult questions related to the management and rehabilitation of pavement after a natural disaster and methods to reduce costs of pavement rehabilitation due to reduced budgets.
Signage Management
ARA collected an initial signage inventory using a combination of images from the DSV and through foot-on-ground surveys. After the completion and verification of the signage inventory, the County has maintained it using CartêGraph’s SIGNview software.
A serious concern for the County staff responsible for signs was field data collection by the County’s field staff.
To ease management of the signs in the field, ARA developed the Mobile Sign Application (MSA). The MSA allows mobile sign crews to enter daily work order information directly into a computerized system. It uses a custom interface on tablet PCs to maximize efficiency in the field. Built-in geographic information system (GIS) maps and real-time global positioning system (GPS) tracking allow users to see where they are, and where they need to be. The MSA also allows users to track equipment and material usage on each work order. The MSA seamlessly synchronizes its data with the SIGNview database.
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