Crews Out Analyzing Condition of St. Charles Streets in May

ST. CHARLES, IL - The city of St. Charles has hired IMS Infrastructure Management Services from Rolling Meadows to perform a citywide analysis of its streets. This process typically is completed every four to five years and is meant to analyze changes in pavement conditions over time, according to a news release from the city of St. Charles. The field testing work is slated to begin on Monday, and will take about three weeks to complete.

The field surveys of the roads are completed in two phases using specialized equipment. In the first phase, streets are inventoried and pavement performance data is collected using a device known as a Laser Road Surface Tester, according to city officials. The device measures pavement roughness, rutting, cracking and other surface distresses as it traverses the roadway.

The second phase establishes the load-carrying capacity of the roadways using a device known as a Dynaflect. The Dynaflect provides data to determine why a roadway is performing poorly or if there are any underlying pavement problems that cannot be found by simply testing the pavement surface.

Once all of the data is collected, it will be analyzed by IMS, loaded into the City’s asset management application and utilized by staff "to make informed, data-driven decisions regarding future pavement maintenance," according to the news release. The evaluation of the data for future paving recommendation will take place over the next year.

“The city maintains more than 135 miles of roadway within its corporate limits,” says Public Works Civil Engineer Ken Jay. “Pavement testing and analysis is an important tool to evaluate and prioritize the City’s pavement maintenance needs for future years.”

Photo caption: A road surface testerPhoto credit: city of St. Charles