In 2006, 2013 and 2016, the City of Sugar Land conducted a street evaluation and updated the pavement management program. The city pavement inventory consists of approximately 490 centerline miles of pavement or approximately 1200 lane miles of pavement with an approximate replacement value of $865,136,803. Below is a snapshot of pavement inventory.
Visual pavement condition surveys were collected with trained field raters that noted pavement distresses in the two types of pavement within the city: Rigid Pavement (Concrete) and Flexible Pavement (Asphalt). The following pavement distresses were evaluated:
For each of the pavement distresses the pavement rater identified the severity and extent of the distress. An example of the Severity of an extreme distress is “a concrete slab has surface deterioration over 30% of its area” while an example of Extent of an intermittent distress is “affects between 16%-30% of a cross section length.” Based on the severity and extent for each pavement distress deduction points are assigned similar to the matrix below:
Based on the level of severity and extent of each distress identified as present on a street, a number of deduction points are assigned. The summation of these deduction points are subtracted from a perfect score of 100 to estimate the current pavement condition rating (PCR). The pavement condition rating value provides a uniform and systematic method to describe the overall condition of a street’s pavement. The acceptable PCR within the City of Sugar Land is 65. Below is an example of the scale utilized:
Below are examples of PCR and pavement distresses:
To maximize the useful life of the pavement through strategic maintenance practices including pavement and reconstruction, the city created the Pavement Management and Maintenance Program (PMMP). The PMMP for the City of Sugar Land includes pavement repair categories and strategies such as Pavement Minor Maintenance, Pavement Rehabilitation, Pavement Major Rehabilitation and Pavement Reconstruction. Within each of the repair categories, there are a number of repair strategies that may be utilized to repair and extend the life of the pavement. Below is a summary table:
In 2017, the Street Evaluation and Pavement Management Study completed by HVJ Associates provided pavement condition surveys on all City maintained streets and provided an estimate of capital improvement program (CIP) and street maintenance programs (SMP) to maintain the current network level and to improve the overall network level.
Project: Major Street Rehabilitation
The 2017 Street Evaluation and Pavement Management Study identified Park One Drive, portion of West Airport Blvd, Audubon Ct streets and others requiring major street rehabilitation.
Park One - Industrial to Bournewood
$1.9 Rehabilitation
PCR 28 & 32 in 2016
Audubon Court
$100K Reconstruction
PCR 23 in 2016
West Airport - Eldridge to Stancliffe
$1.9 Million Rehabilitation
PCR 55 in 2016
Abbott Circle
$100K Rehabilitation
Score 33 in 2016
Project: Citywide Transportation and Mobility Studies
Based on the latest resident satisfaction survey, the flow of traffic and congestion management were identified as priorities for improvement. Implementing transportation and mobility studies or projects will aid the City in identifying mobility projects and to conduct localized street improvements at various locations. Some of the possible improvements/study areas could be:
- Study University Blvd & Branford Place Intersection – Possibly add Southbound left turn lane at median opening
- Study Greatwood Pkwy and Riverbrook Intersection – Potential upgrade of the intersection to a roundabout due to high right turn volumes and queuing on Greatwood Pkwy
- School Congestion Study - Study will investigate school traffic congestion/circulation issues within City. Keeping safety in mind but focusing on documenting existing conditions (attendance, internal queue capacity, circulation, overflow conditions, duration of problem), discuss any future plans or challenges with school officials, consider parking problems in neighborhoods, investigate possible improvements on or off campus. Results will be shared with each school and district. The study will focus on the top 3 schools with congestion issues.
- Citywide Crash Analysis - Accidents are sorted by locations. Those locations with a repetitive accident are further analyzed to determine if traffic engineering measures could effect a reduction in accidents at that location. At these locations, the officer’s narrative and crash diagram are reviewed to determine if any patterns in crash factors could be corrected by engineering measures.