'FROM POTHOLES TO CRASH MAPS': High-tech tools guide work of county road commission

Mar. 27—TRAVERSE CITY — Technology is transforming the work of the Grand Traverse County Road Commission.

"We don't have enough money to make every road in the county perfect," said Road Commission Superintendent Larry LaCross. "That's why we're making use of database technology and [computerized] mapping tools to prioritize projects in the most efficient way.

"Everything we have — from roads and bridges to trucks and shovels — is owned by the public," LaCross said. "It's our duty to use those assets wisely."

In November, the road commission will be asking voters to renew its millage at current levels so progress can continue. Without that renewal "very little road maintenance and improvements will happen," he said.

LaCross is part of a 56-person team that manages 1,100 miles of county roads serving every township and village in the area. They range from small seasonal roads in forest areas to major thoroughfares like 3 Mile Road. All those roads lined up, end to end, would stretch from Traverse City to Savanah, Georgia.

Since it costs more than $2 million to build 1 mile of road, it's imperative to extend the life of existing roadways through carefully planned maintenance, according to Dan Watkins, road commission manager.

"We want to develop a three-year plan for all aspects of road maintenance," he said at a recent county board meeting. "And we want to document why we made those decisions with supporting evidence, which can be shared with township officials and the public."

Achieving that goal requires analyzing data about road quality, surface conditions and critical repair needs, as well as detailed history of all work done. The old days of guesswork and "putting out fires" are over, Watkins said.

Today, the road commission uses a variety of advanced software tools to convert that data into usable form. One such tool is called GIS — geographic information systems.

GIS software can integrate information from multiple databases to create a graphic image of the local transportation infrastructure. Different "layers" of data can be displayed to highlight specific problem areas.

For example, a detailed map of local roads can be overlaid with crash statistics from law enforcement and Michigan Department of Transportation to highlight where the most accidents happen. Road commission engineers can then decide what changes or enhancements might be warranted, such as additional signage or a turn lane.

In the "crash map" example accompanying this article, heat cells indicate which intersections and road segments are most prone to accidents. Bigger heat cells, and those with more red/yellow coloration, show where more crashes are happening in a given time period.

When a user clicks on a specific heat cell, the system brings up data about each incident, including:

Date, time, location, crash type, number of injuries, vehicle types involved, weather conditions, road surface conditions, impact area, township, latitude/longitude, young or elderly drivers involved, and if alcohol was a factor in the crash.

In addition, the GIS system provides a bar chart showing how many fatalities, injuries and cases of property damage have occurred in a given area over time.

For example, a crash map for the north-south corridor in Garfield Township from Barlow/LaFranier to Hammond Road had one fatality, 29 injuries and 74 cases of property damage during the years 2018 to 2022.

Other areas with a high rate of crashes in the county include the main intersections along South Airport Road; the intersection of West 14th Street, Silver Lake Road and U.S. 31; the junction of 3 Mile Road and U.S. 31; and the intersection of Garfield and Hammond roads.

At this point, the crash maps are focused on main county road "corridors" where most traffic flows. They don't include smaller residential roads or state/federal highways unless they happen to intersect to a principal county road.

Rachel Colby is the GIS specialist for the county road commission. She first learned about GIS software while studying marine technology at Northwestern Michigan College.

"We used GIS for analyzing underwater surveys, but it works in a similar way for roads," she said. "Because software is always changing, some of my skills are self-taught."

The variety of data inputs the road commission uses for GIS range from local road maps and Garmin maps to NASA satellite imagery and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Monitoring road conditions and surface quality is another major task at the road commission. Simply inputting external data doesn't suffice. That's why staffers inspect hundreds of miles of roadway each year in person, sometimes on foot and sometimes in a vehicle.

To grade road quality on a scale of 1 to 10, engineers use the "Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating" (PASER) system. Roads rated 8-10 earn a "good rating," roads rated 5-7 are labeled "fair," and roads rated 1-4 are considered "poor." Those ratings are then overlaid on maps in the GIS system.

All roads that are maintained using federal aid money, in full or in part, are required to be evaluated every two years.

Road commission officials said their goal is to lift 80 to 90 percent of county roads to the fair or good rating, given enough resources.

Statewide, only 20 percent of local roads were rated in good condition in 2022, according to the state's Transportation Asset Management Council. The group said 35 percent were rated fair and 45 percent poor.

Another technology in the road maintenance toolbox employs automated photographic systems.

Last fall, the road commission collaborated with Transmap of Columbus, Ohio, to try out a new inspection method that takes electronic photographs of every road surface in the county. That data can then be converted to a "Pavement Condition Index" which uses a 1-100 scale, which gives a more precise look at specific road conditions.

Staffers later converted the PCI data to PASER scale so they could do one-to-one comparisons with other counties and state-level reports.

Technology such as GIS and Transmap are important "pieces of the puzzle," but not everything that's needed, LaCross emphasized.

"Our engineers and operations people can leverage that analysis information, but they also need to use their skills and training to make informed decisions," he said. "Keeping detailed records of the road work done, and how that work was done, is also critically important.

"If a particular type of repair didn't work or didn't last, we can know not to repeat that error."

Money is also an important factor in the overall equation. Road commission officials are working on a comprehensive "asset management system" to track every segment of every road and bridge, along with all related items, such as traffic signals, signs, curbs, vehicles and repair equipment.

The work-order management system is a sister technology that tracks each project and response to maintenance requests. For example, the small regional map shows where 1,026 potholes were filled during the first 25 days of March.

Once all of the various systems are fully functional, the staff will be better prepared to estimate road repair costs and plan for the future, officials said. Inflation and supplier changes inevitably lead to price changes, they said, but at least they'll have a more accurate starting point going forward.

Watkins, who became road commission manager in October 2023, acknowledged at a recent meeting with township officials that the current estimating system takes too long and isn't accurate enough. He pledged major improvements going forward.

The next step for the road commission is to integrate more recent crash data from state sources in the GIS system, as well as building out the various other systems already in place. Some of that work requires approval from the road commission board.

At a recent meeting, board Vice Chair Joe Underwood reminded the public that state roads (e.g., U.S. 31, Grandview Parkway and M-37) are not maintained by the county.

Underwood also said state grants from the Michigan Transportation Fund must be used for specific roadways and purposes, which limits the ability of the commission to spend money elsewhere.

The next regular meeting of the county road commission board is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, March 28, in the commission's board room at 1881 LaFranier Road.

For more information about the road commission, go to: https://www.gtcrc.org.