Rating Local Road Conditions

Asset management is a crucial process for maximizing the investments made in our infrastructure systems. For Southeast Michigan’s transportation system, this means making the right fixes in the right places at the right times. Addressing the needs of a road or bridge before the condition deteriorates to “Poor” can save millions of dollars in construction costs.

In addition to facilitating a region-wide asset management process in partnership with MDOT, SEMCOG supports local asset management programs by making grants available to communities to collect Pavement and Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) data on non-federal aid streets. The program has been enormously successful. However, there are significant gaps in the data collected on local roads in the region. In November the SEMCOG Regional Review committee approved new criteria to dedicate the regional asset management funds in 2024 to fill in gaps in the regional local road data network.

New Local Road Rating Process

For the 2024 rating season, SEMCOG will be hiring a vendor to collect PASER data on local streets throughout the region. Communities that have never conducted a pavement rating study or have ratings older than 2020 will be given priority.

What to Expect

The program is open to all counties, cities, and villages in the seven-county region. We anticipate that this will result in a streamlined data collection process for communities. SEMCOG will work with your community to identify eligible roads for rating based on criteria adopted by SEMCOG’s Regional Review Committee. The vendor will collect PASER data. After quality checks are finished, the data will be delivered to your community.

The map below shows significant gaps in understanding the condition of the local road system. While communities may have collected PASER data on these roads, SEMCOG does not have information. If you have data that will help to fill in these gaps in our knowledge, please contact me at [email protected].

Gaps in the local road system

The areas in red represent data missing from SEMCOG’s local pavement condition database.

Submission Process

Submit your request for assistance through SurveyMonkey by Friday, January 5, 2024 at 5 p.m.

Next Steps

SEMCOG staff will review applications to make sure they meet the criteria chosen by the Regional Review Committee. Once the final slate of proposals is reviewed and approved, we will work with communities to establish the timeline for data collection. Data collection will start April 1, 2024 and extend into mid-August.

Once the road data is collected, new PASER data will be delivered to your community. SEMCOG can help you upload the data into Roadsoft and provide a demonstration of the types of reports the software can generate.

Understanding the condition of your road inventory is the first step to developing an effective asset management program. SEMCOG wants to ensure that you have all the tools to develop a process that meets the needs of your community, and a foundation of strong data is essential.

Submit your request for assistance