DOT Street Assessments - How DOT Rates Streets
2
Street Paving and Maintenance New York City Department of Transportation A DOT crew rakes and casts asphalt in order to even out a street’s rough edges. D Over 40% of the asphalt DOT used in FY2010 is made from recycled materials: recycled asphalt pavement, or RAP, is the paving material removed from city streets during milling and reintroduced into our asphalt mix. D RAP brings about significant savings in fuel and costs. In FY2010 124,000 tons of asphalt were re-used instead of ending up in a landfill, and DOT avoided the use of approximately 600,000 barrels of oil that would have been used in the production process. D With RAP, we also eliminated the need to travel almost 250,000 extra truck miles to cart our materials out to landfills. DOT’S ASPHALT: D 1,006.78 lane miles of road resurfaced citywide in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, 828.87 in FY2010, and a budget to resurface 1,000 lane miles citywide in FY2011. (One lane mile is one linear mile multiplied by 12 feet) D 120.89 lane miles of road paved on Staten Island for FY2009 and 119.16 in FY2010. D $2.4 million were received in funding for resurfacing from Staten Island’s City Council members, (used for contract milling and supervision on Staten Island) in FY2010. RESURFACING FACTS AND FIGURES: Resurfacing New York City’s Streets After a street is selected for resurfacing, DOT schedules the work with other streets in the vicinity to maximize efficiency. This schedule is shared with utility companies to allow them to conduct their planned work in the area before DOT repairs the roadway. DOT is then able to mill and pave the street. Milling is the process of grinding existing asphalt from a roadway. This process allows the street to maintain its current grade. In order to reduce waste and keep NYC’s streets sustainable, the ground existing asphalt, known as Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) is used to make new asphalt; this reduces the need for new material and reduces the amount of waste entering landfills. All milled streets are reopened to traffic the same day work is completed. Paving the milled roadway is the next step in the process. Usually streets are paved approximately two weeks after they are milled; this time enables DOT to utilize its resources effectively—sometimes allowing utility work to be done on the street prior to paving. Before street paving, notification of work is posted; vehicles are relocated when necessary. Paved streets are also reopened to traffic the same day. Following resurfacing, temporary markings are placed on the street for traffic flow and pedestrian safety, before permanent markings are installed. Once a street has been resurfaced, restrictions are put in place, limiting the ability of utilities to cut into the resurfaced street, requiring more stringent restoration requirements and guaranteeing the work for a longer period of time (five years instead of 18 months).
Transcript of DOT Street Assessments - How DOT Rates Streets
Street Paving and MaintenanceNew York City Department of Transportation
A DOT crew rakes and casts asphalt in order to even out a street’s rough edges.
D Over 40% of the asphalt DOT used in FY2010 is made from recycled materials: recycled asphalt pavement, or RAP, is the paving material removed from city streets during milling and reintroduced into our asphalt mix.
D RAP brings about significant savings in fuel and costs. In FY2010 124,000 tons of asphalt were re-used instead of ending up in a landfill, and DOT avoided the use of approximately 600,000 barrels of oil that would have been used in the production process.
D With RAP, we also eliminated the need to travel almost 250,000 extra truck miles to cart our materials out to landfills.
DOT’S ASPHALT:
D 1,006.78 lane miles of road resurfaced citywide in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, 828.87 in FY2010, and a budget to resurface 1,000 lane miles citywide in FY2011. (One lane mile is one linear mile multiplied by 12 feet)
D 120.89 lane miles of road paved on Staten Island for FY2009 and 119.16 in FY2010.
D $2.4 million were received in funding for resurfacing from Staten Island’s City Council members, (used for contract milling and supervision on Staten Island) in FY2010.
RESURFACING FACTS AND FIGURES:
Resurfacing New York City’s StreetsAfter a street is selected for resurfacing, DOT schedules the work with other streets
in the vicinity to maximize efficiency. This schedule is shared with utility companies to allow them to conduct their planned work in the area before DOT repairs the roadway. DOT is then able to mill and pave the street.
Milling is the process of grinding existing asphalt from a roadway. This process allows the street to maintain its current grade. In order to reduce waste and keep NYC’s streets sustainable, the ground existing asphalt, known as Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) is used to make new asphalt; this reduces the need for new material and reduces the amount of waste entering landfills. All milled streets are reopened to traffic the same day work is completed.
Paving the milled roadway is the next step in the process. Usually streets are paved approximately two weeks after they are milled; this time enables DOT to utilize its resources effectively—sometimes allowing utility work to be done on the street prior to paving. Before street paving, notification of work is posted; vehicles are relocated when necessary. Paved streets are also reopened to traffic the same day.
Following resurfacing, temporary markings are placed on the street for traffic flow and pedestrian safety, before permanent markings are installed.
Once a street has been resurfaced, restrictions are put in place, limiting the ability of utilities to cut into the resurfaced street, requiring more stringent restoration requirements and guaranteeing the work for a longer period of time (five years instead of 18 months).
NYC DOT : www.nyc.gov/dot Street Assessments
Street Assessment Scale
Rat
ing
Street Condition
1
A street that is in the worst possible condition: extreme deterioration of pavement with extensive cracking, poor patching, and potholes covering more than 75% of the pavement. Streets with a “1” rating generally need to be fully “reconstructed” rather than repaved.
2
Street characterized by severe distress including cracking, poor patching, and potholes covering more than 75% of the pavement. The cracks may not be as wide open or the patches as consistently poor as for a street with a “1” rating.
3
A street with between 50% and 75% of its area covered with defects. Typical defects are patching, cracking, raveling* and surface peeling.
4
A street with 25% to 50% of its area covered with defects such as patching (often medium to poor quality), cracking, raveling, and rutting.
5
A street with less severe distress covering 25% to 50% of the street. Typical distress includes patching, cracking, and raveling.
6
A street characterized by moderate distress over 10% to 25% of its service area. Typical distress includes patching, cracking (hairline to wide), raveling, and rutting.
7
A street in good condition, with minor distress covering 5% to 10% of its area.
8
A street in good condition with minor distress such as raveling, cracking, or patching covering 5% or less of its area.
9
A street in very good condition with no observable distress. Usually such a street is newly resurfaced.
10
A street in very good condition with no observable distress and with curbs in perfect repair. Usually such a street is newly reconstructed.
Rating of 1: Indicates a street that is in the worst possible condition: extreme deterioration of pavement with extensive cracking, poor patching, and potholes covering more than 75% of the pavement.
Rating of 6: A street with a “6” rating is characterized by moderate distress over 10% to 25% of its service area. Typical distress includes patching and cracking (hairline to wide).
How DOT Rates StreetsIn order to effectively, efficiently and systematically maintain New York City’s
streets, on a yearly basis the Department of Transportation evaluates the condition of a minimum of 50% of streets citywide. NYC DOT’s Street Assessment Unit uses a GIS based system; this helps ensure that a portion of every community district’s streets are rated each year.
Although the City Charter only requires 50% of the city’s streets to be assessed annually, most years over 90% of NYC’s streets are assessed.
Street Assessment inspectors assess the level of distress on individual city streets or blocks and assign a corresponding rating on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst and 10 being the best). Street distress includes cracking, patching, surface peeling, raveling (wearing away) or rutting. This rating scale was developed by staff at DOT working with a panel of 13 City and State experts. The Street Assessment process survey includes an audit and cross-checking process to ensure the integrity of the ratings.
The rating of the street is used in determining what streets will be repaved in a given year. DOT also takes into account other work going in the area, requests from community boards, elected officials and other stakeholders.
