(After an article in the May 31, 2023 edition of the Gazette about a pavement coring operation and survey, the editor had some more questions about that and the three-year $18 million repaving project to bring all Wake Forest streets up to snuff. An annual expenditure of $2 million would keep them that way.
(Last week Joe Guckavan, the Wake Forest Director of Engineering, and Monica Sarna, the Assistant Engineering Director, sent me the answers a little too late to be included in last week’s edition, but here it is in this week’s. It should answer about all if not all questions about the town’s program for its street surfaces.
(The Gazette can tell you that the sampling study for the program has been completed.)
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In 2020, the Town of Wake Forest partnered with an engineering consultant, SEPI, to perform a Pavement Condition Assessment. Such assessments are commonly performed by municipalities as a means of understanding the condition of streets and estimated costs for repair and maintenance.
The assessment identified the costs for repairs and maintenance at over $10 million, which was included in the voter-approved 2022 bond referendum. In anticipation of funding from the bond, the Town contracted with a consultant, Mott MacDonald, to utilize the data from the SEPI report and prepare a Pavement Management Program.
In the past, municipalities typically used a pavement repair and maintenance program with a “worst first” approach. In recent years, however, the industry has recognized the need to maximize and preserve longevity of existing streets, minimize costs, reduce waste resulting from complete full depth repairs, and provide a high level of service. Newer methods look to provide rejuvenators and other methods to accomplish that goal.
Mott MacDonald has analyzed the SEPI data using a specialized software and provided work plans designed to meet our goals and maximize the impact of each dollar. As the program is developed, it is possible to see what might appear to be a newer road receiving a surface treatment while an older road in worse condition is left until a subsequent year. The philosophy behind that approach is that it is more cost effective to keep the street in better condition than reconstruct an older road that has already degraded past the opportunity for rejuvenators and surface treatments.
Once a street has deteriorated beyond surface treatments, the repair costs are dramatically higher, and the need doesn’t change much from year to year. In other words, the more expensive repair is needed regardless of when it is performed while allowing a street in better condition to wait may cause it to slip away to the point that it requires more expensive repairs.
The pavement core sampling operations currently underway by Mott MacDonald (now complete) will provide information about the existing street material and depth so that proper repairs can be made. Once this data is provided, final construction documents will be prepared and the job will go out to bid.
We anticipate receiving bids this fall and beginning construction/repairs in late fall or early spring.
Once information is available, we will provide project information on our Transportation projects web page. Information provided on the page will include those streets proposed for this year’s project.
The Pavement Management Program is dedicated to providing quality street surfaces in the most cost-effective way possible. We anticipate construction costs to be $6 million per year for the next three years with annual repairs after that. Funding will be subject to bond and budget limitations and will be evaluated on a yearly basis.
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October 25, 2024
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