RECOMMENDED SERVICE EFFORTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS (SEA) REPORTING INDICATORS FOR ROAD MAINTENANCE

 The principal objectives of road maintenance are (Hatry et al. 1990, p. 250):

1. To provide a smooth, comfortable, expeditious, and safe ride for the public;

2. To reduce such user costs as fuel, repairs, accidents and travel time;

3. To utilize labor, equipment, and material efficiently; and

4. To ensure that pavement lasts as long as it should, thereby reducing future costs, such as rehabilitating or reconstructing it.

Recommended indicators follow (Hatry et al. 1990, pp. 258-260):

 INPUTS

• Expenditures

  • Total

  • By activity

• Labor hours

• Quantity of material by type

• Equipment hours by type

 OUTPUTS

• Pavement miles resurfaced

• Pavement miles seal coated

• Number of potholes repaired (or tons of premix applied)

• Miles of curb/gutter/sidewalk replaced

• Number of street utility cuts repaired

• Number of storm inlets repaired/cleaned

 OUTCOMES/QUALITY

• Number and percentage of lane miles of road whose condition was either improved or maintained at satisfactory level (i.e., PSI>25)

• Lane miles in poor, fair, satisfactory and excellent condition

• Road rideability as measured by such devices as Mays Meter

• Pavement distress indicators measured by visual condition surveys that relate to maintenance performance (e.g., number of lane miles with sever alligator cracking)

• Percentage of lane miles at acceptable rating level

• Percentage of roads seal coated out of total requiring such work

• Average quality assurance measures achieved on completion of maintenance surfacing (e.g., average smoothness)

• Year-to-year change in the average service life of different types of maintenance works on different categories of highways

• Citizen perceptions of road condition based on public opinion surveys

• Average time to respond to citizen complaints

 EFFICIENCY

Ratio of inputs to outputs:

• Average unit dollar cost for labor, equipment, and material for particular types of repair such as average labor-hours per mile of streets resurfaced

Measures related to outcomes/quality:

• Number of miles maintained in a "satisfactory" or better condition per dollar of expenditure by road category (i.e., PSI>2.5)

• Number of miles improved to or maintained at PSI>2.5 per dollar of expenditure by road category

• Comparison of performance measures for in-house and contract labor by maintenance activity

 EXPLANATORY DATA

• Weather (degree days, freeze-thaw cycles)

• Terrain (flat, rolling, mountainous)

• Type of road (flexible, rigid)

• Traffic volume and percentage of trucks (or equivalent single-axle roads)

• Average time or distance to work sites

• Lane miles of agency maintenance responsibility by road type

• Pavement age distribution

• Other unusual work circumstances

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