Success Story –
The Washington County of Maryland maintains about 1000 miles of roads. The County’s Department of Engineering (CDE) performs pavement inspection each year to assess the condition of the roads. Prior to 2005, CDE manually performed the inspection. Based on the results of the inspection, CDE assigned a rating score to each road segment then entered the rating into a text-based system to calculate the needed repair priority and cost. Any data entry error or rating mismatch during this process resulted in an incorrect repair decision as well as miscalculated budget. In many cases, the errors remained hidden until they became problematic because the field validation costs were just too high and could not be performed. Moreover, the county’s annual budgeting process often involved seemingly an unlimited number of changes. It has been no surprise that CDE needed to produce multiple budget report options corresponding to different project limitations, budget constraints, or repair priorities.
In 2005, CDE used eRoadInfo’s image based solutions to perform pavement
inspection and rating. The rating of the
roads was established while viewing the video captured by the eRoadInfo/Van. All the captured video sessions are
associated with the CDE road centerline.
Using ESRI’s GIS application, CDE can click on any road to view driving
video and verify pavement condition. eRoadInfo’s efficient interface for rating input eliminates
data mismatch because the rating is based on the video directly associated with
road.
eRoadInfo offers complete
analytical and reporting functions needed to complete the pavement management
tasks. For about the same cost of a tradition
pavement rating service, CDE now performs pavement ratings and management in
the office using the video captured by the eRoadInfo/Van. The database driven interface design allows
CDE users to define input buttons, pull-down lists, and data structure. CDE can define pavement repair variables such
as material costs as well as repair decision tree. eRoadInfo’s report
module addresses all reporting needs from management summary to road repair
details.
“The eRoadInfo solution has proven
invaluable in the County's pavement management program. The ability to
rate the pavement from the desktop computer screen has saved the
County hours of field time. Having one individual rate all of the road segments in the database, provides
a consistency not previously afforded. Transferring the type and
quantity of repair methods to a visual map, helps the engineers convey the
status of pavement condition throughout the county.”
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Mr. Randy Edwards, PE, Civil Engineer,