Cedar Rapids Paving for Progress

Challenge: The citizens of Cedar Rapids approved an extension on a 1-percent Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) specifically for maintenance, repair, construction, and reconstruction of public streets. This $180 million initiative was branded “Paving for Progress.” HR Green was retained to assist with a comprehensive, 10-year list of prioritized projects.

Solution: HR Green was contracted to evaluate deteriorating pavement throughout the City and exercise pavement management methodology to inventory pavement conditions and establish thresholds throughout the City’s 600+ miles of paved roads. HR Green with input from the City established thresholds and created trigger conditions to determine what treatments were applied. This was an exercise in refining informal definitions and evaluation processes into something more abstract and objective in nature.

The project involved utilizing PASER data collection methodology combined with GIS technology and Deighton Total Infrastructure Management System (dTIMS) software to gather and analyze data. The analysis included modeling the pavement performance over the 10-year program and determining optimal treatments for each road segment and when to apply them for the whole network, covering just over 600 miles of roadway.

Using dTIMS, HR Green conducted a life cycle cost analysis and determined the most cost-effective, time-sensitive plan possible to improve the City of Cedar Rapids system. Following analysis, maintenance, and reconstruction strategies were presented, and a prioritization strategy was developed that amended the City’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). HR Green also tracked the projects and provided performance measurement metrics that tracked the progress and effectiveness of the Paving for Progress program.

Benefit: The project allowed the City to fully understand the pavement conditions of poor and deteriorating surfaces and deploy a strategy to extend pavement life. HR Green’s recommended reconstructions align with the City’s initiative to leverage the greatest results from the LOST funds by implementing Pavement Management Techniques to improve the overall quality of the network.