Mark Balon from Kimley Horn presented the consultants findings on the city's paving issues at City Hall on Thursday night.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Consultants Kimley Horn is telling the city to break the habit of fixing the worst roads first.

 

Instead, they suggest a plan that mixes maintenance of some of the better roads, rehabilitation of the mid-level conditions, and total resurfacing of the worst. By creating a plan that includes a bit of everything, the city gets the most value for its spending, the consultants say.

 

"It is more cost effective to repair pavements with a pavement management system," said Mark Balon, who presented the company's findings on Thursday night.

 

Overall the city's roads are ranked at 58 on a scale of 100, according to a rating system the company did on each of the city's 858 roadways. That is "fair" condition and above the "critical point," Balon said.

 

The price per square foot for pavement work increases dramatically once the road drops below 57, he said.

 

The goal of the company's recommended approach is to keep roads above that critical point through a series of preventative maintenance projects to extend the life of each road. Above the critical point, repairs are 43 cents per square foot or lower but when it dips below, repairs jump to more than $2.50 per square foot.

 

"You get a lot of life on these types of pavements and the goal is to continue to maintain these pavements," Balon said. "We want to maintain it above the critical point."

 

Now that the roads have been assessed and ranked, city engineers need to plan accordingly. The company's programs prioritize through a weighted scale to help direct when projects should be done.

 

"We had some good systems in place but we really wanted a tool for longer-range planning and that's what this will do for us," said City Engineer Matthew Billetter. 

 

Mayor Daniel Bianchi added that the city is now working even more closely with Berkshire Gas Co. to plan out when projects will be done to avoid conflicts. He hopes to have long-term plans posted on the city's website that will give dates as to when each road will be done so residents will know what to expect.

 

"We have to take a much more scientific approach," he said of the system. "We have to be more economical. We have to be more economical in our approach and we have to make every dollar count. ... It is a scientific approach that makes sense and that we think has great value to us." 

 

However, the city currently isn't budgeting enough to improve the roads over time. At the current spending level of about $2.1 million, the company says the overall score will drop to 52, which still keeps the roads in "fair" condition but doesn't improve them.

 

"We used $2.1 million and we saw that by doing that we lose the overall condition index," Balon said. "I really think $3.5 million would probably be at that point if you were trying to budget every year."

 

At $3.5 million, the city will start to have less money being spent on full reconstructions and more on maintenance projects. But, there will still be full reconstruction projects.

 

The inventory and condition assessments that Kimley Horn created need to be kept up, Balon said, and the company will still be available to help.

 

For more details on the report click here.