In the 1990s, when Town staff planned a strategy for asphalt maintenance on streets, it was more or less a hands-on job. Staff members would take to the streets for a visual inspection of cracking or levels of deterioration and on occasion they might punch a hole in the pavement to assess the condition of the base foundation under the asphalt. This was no small task when inspecting more than 150 linear miles of street with over three million square yards of asphalt. Even with the best effort the results might be lacking.

A leap into the 21st Century brought with it technology to make thorough inspections accurate with minimal physical effort. It was 2007 when the Town brought in Stantec Consulting to do the Town’s first high-tech assessment of pavement conditions. While the results were promising the Great Recession limited the financial resources to get a substantial on-going maintenance program off the ground.

In 2021 the Town appointed a volunteer group of a dozen members to serve as an ad-hoc committee on street and pavement management. It was a group with engineers, road construction, finance and government and a combined total of 250 years of practical experience in the field. They were tasked with making recommendations related to long-term pavement management and setting priorities for immediate action.

They reported to the council earlier this summer with a recommendation that included a $50 million “do it now” program to get streets up to desired condition standards. A big part of the research included the services of Roadway Asset Services (RAS), a consulting firm like Stantec, but with nearly 20 years of more advanced technology.

The RAS data collection van is reminiscent of something NASA might drop on Mars for research. The van included a 360-degree right of way camera to provide video with exclusive technology and 32 megapixel resolution and processing data every 15 feet. The front bumper provided a NCAT certified three-laser profiler to assess roughness and rutting. The rear was equipped with a laser crack measuring system with two one-millimeter resolution line scan cameras. The 1mm resolution is equal to more than 4,000 dedicated laser points. It has 32MP HD imagery for 100% contiguous survey and processing to provide an objective engineering standard assessment of the pavement condition.

RAS conducted a field visit with staff and committee members to assess pilot data and results. They selected a sampling of good, fair and poor roads for the pilot. After data was collected conditions and expectations were discussed with staff.

The assessment of the streets indicated an overall Pavement Condition Index (PCI) at 69, which is just shy of “good” condition. The testing also showed that 51% of the streets were in very good to excellent condition. This is reflected by the large amount of pavement on Saguaro and Shea boulevards that has been resurfaced within the past 10 years.

It is the level of “backlog” streets that is of significant concern. These are streets where the condition is well beyond routine maintenance and require reconstruction. This is the condition of much of what is described as “pre-incorporation” asphalt, installed prior to 1990 when construction standards were not as high. Roughly 34% of the pavement in Fountain Hills is in this category.

Backlog can be described as something of a slippery slope with regard to pavement conditions. When asphalt has reached this point or near, it deteriorates very quickly, resulting in backlog increasing year to year along with the expense of repairs.

A backlog of less than 10% is considered ideal for a road inventory with 15% the maximum manageable amount. If it reaches 20% or greater it becomes difficult to catch up from.

The data from the RAS survey is being used to set priorities. The highest priority or critical to address are roads that will drop into a more costly rehabilitation category in the next year. Higher volume roadways will also have a higher priority.

The Town already has the process in motion to begin reconstruction of some pre-incorporation roads within the next year. Funding is available for two years of improvements. Future funding will be the subject of future council discussion.