Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Public Works

TO:	Chuck Soules
FROM:	Mark Thiel
CC:	David Cronin, Steve Lashley, Tom Orzulak, Lynn Zollner
Date:	5/7/2013
RE:	Public Meetings / Input for Brick Street Maintenance and Restoration Guidelines Begins

Background

In late October, 2005, the first cycle of the street pavement condition inventory for the (PMS) was completed, which involved a physical inventory and analysis of every street segment within the City of Lawrence.  The PMS provides Public Works with a management tool to maintain an inventory of street pavement, their respective condition and maintenance work history, and the ability to identify budget needs and impacts associated with pavement preservation strategies in developing an effective Pavement Preservation Program (P3) as part of our Street Maintenance Program.  The PCI (pavement condition index) rating is a number assigned to a pavement segment based on its condition, and range from 0-100.  A lower number reflects a street with higher severity and more frequently occurring pavement distresses.  Examples of factors affecting the PCI rating include:  type and severity of cracking (traverse, longitudinal, fatigue), surface defects (spalling, raveling, and pot-holes), rutting, settlements, and pavement base failure.

The program originally was set up to perform crack sealing, microsurfacing, asphalt mill and overlay, and curb & gutter maintenance. In 2009, concrete street rehabilitation program was added to the program.

In July 2011 the City Auditor recommended that “the city should establish guidance on maintaining streets that are brick and asphalt over brick. Guidance would help the city better maintain those streets. Currently the city does not have a plan for brick street maintenance. While these brick streets represent a small part of the city’s street system (23 lane miles), they are concentrated in one part of town and are in relatively poor condition.” To date, the selection of brick streets for maintenance or reconstruction has been based on availability of transportation enhancement funds or minor repairs utilizing the street maintenance operational budgets. The community has not had a real plan and/or strategy for moving forward with the addition of brick streets to our maintenance program for any number of reasons.

Public Comment

As part of the process to establish selection guidelines we have broken the process into two parts; maintenance and restoration. Over the past year Public Works Department staff has been collecting data and researching to determine a strategy and starting point for the draft guidelines. On April 18, 2013 we started the process for public comment with a presentation to the Historical Resource Commission (HRC). Moving forward we will begin open public meetings with neighborhood associations and the community as a whole over the next four to five months. We will then present the information gathered back to the HRC and finally a proposal to the City Commission in December 2013 for consideration.