The Capital District Transportation
Committee staff conducted a survey of the condition of the pavements of the
region's non-state federal-aid highway system in Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady
This survey, together with the
condition survey of non-federal-aid roads conducted every four years by CDTC
staff and NYSDOT's annual survey of the state touring
route system, forms a complete picture of physical condition of Capital
District roads.
The streets and highways surveyed in
this study effort were limited to federal-aid facilities owned and maintained
by city, county, town, and village governments within the Capital
District. Federal-aid roads on the state
touring route system (including a limited number of segments owned and
maintained by local communities) are surveyed and scored annually by NYSDOT
personnel and included in reports by the State regarding the conditions of
their roads.
The average condition of non-state federal-aid roads increased
significantly in 2001 and dropped slightly in 2003, but remained fairly high at
6.8. Despite increases and decreases,
the average score has been between 6.6 and 6.9 (a 4% difference) for the last 20
years of the CDTC survey of these roads.
Figure 1
from the report, showing average pavement condition by year is included below.
The percent of non-state federal-aid roads in fair and poor condition dropped
in 2001 to the lowest level since 1985 and increased but stayed relatively low
in 2003 at 35%. The percent fair and
poor has been between 32% and 46% (a 30% difference) for the last 20 years, and
has gone from best to worst in that time period over the course of two only years.
Figure 2
from the report, showing percent
fair and poor by year is included below.
CDTC examined roads by the county their located in, owned by the county
or cities, towns and villages located within the county. The measures of average score and percent
fair and poor show similar results: the
roads in
There are three pavement types: flexible, overlay, and rigid. (Rigid pavements make up less than 3% of the
system in the Capital District.) The
data by pavement type wasn’t as stable over the years of the survey as the
system as whole, presumably because they are subsets of a larger system. Also, it’s easier to maintain a stable
condition over the entire system than to maintain stability over several
smaller subsets.
Rigid pavements are now in very poor shape with percent poor and fair at 64%,
and an average score of only 6.2.
The condition of overlays and flexible pavements in 2003 was slightly
worse than in the previous survey (2001).
However, the condition of rigid pavements remained the same, presumably
because enough rigid pavements received minor repairs (keeping them as rigid
pavements) to compensate for the deterioration of the rest of those pavements. This doesn’t change the fact that rigid
pavements have gotten much worse over recent years, and that they are still in
poor shape and most likely will remain so for reasons detailed in the report.
For the first eight surveys, roads located in urban areas were
consistently in better condition than those located in rural areas. However, in the last three surveys, roads in
rural areas were in as good or better condition than their urban counterparts,
by measure of both average score and percent fair and poor. The condition of both categories worsened
from 2001 to 2003, while the condition of rural roads worsened more than that
of urban roads.
Deterioration rates for non-state federal-aid
roads in the region were developed using paired data from CDTC's
condition scores dating back to 1983.
Road sections for any two year period that improved by two or more
points were removed from the sample, assuming that contract work or other major
repairs had been performed. The
remaining segments served as the data for the calculations.
Deterioration rates translate to
deterioration curves.
Figures 4, 5, and 6
, of the report (included below), show the deterioration curves for each
pavement type plotted with the deterioration rates calculated by NYSDOT for
state-owned portions of the state touring route system. The information obtained from NYSDOT only
included data for the first 20 years of road life. These curves show that the CDTC deterioration
rates are similar to the NYSDOT deterioration rates for the period of road life
for which there is data for both systems.
This implies that the extra wear state roads must endure is generally
compensated for by more heavy duty roads and road repairs.
One indicator of regional pavement condition is the "red flag"
analysis. This analysis -- developed and
used by NYSDOT -- identifies road sections in poor condition. It is intended to serve as a warning
mechanism, identifying problems which need immediate attention.
Of the approximately 193 lane-miles of road on the red flag list in 2001,
about 49 miles, 25% of that year's red flag mileage, were either resurfaced or
reconstructed in the two-year period 2001-03.
However, during this same time period an additional 67 lane miles were
added to the red flag list. Thus, overall,
red flag mileage in the Capital District increased by 9% (18 miles) during that
period.
Both the average score and percent fair and poor got worse from 2001 to
2003, but remained good. In fact, this
is the first time in the history of the survey that the percent fair and poor
has been so low in back to back surveys.
Also, for the last 20 years, the average score has been between 6.6 and
6.9 (a 4% difference). Considering that the
average score varied only slightly over 20 years, the roads in this survey have
kept a fairly consistent condition over a lengthy period of time. This is despite fluctuations in local
funding, state aid and federal aid for local roads.
[1] The "touring route
system" consists of state numbered highways owned by the state, and certain
non-state roads signed as state highways for continuity in driving but owned
and maintained by municipal forces.