Title
Pavement and Asset Management Consultant - Contract
History
Annually, the Village of Orland Park prepares a plan for the repaving and maintenance of streets within the Village. As asphalt pavement ages, it becomes hard and brittle losing the flexibility needed to carry loaded vehicles. When the flexibility is degraded, cracking occurs and soon potholes develop as water enters the pavement via the cracks penetrating the base and sub-base, further degrading the designed load-carrying capacity of the pavement, ultimately resulting in a perpetual pothole.
Design life for municipal pavements is typically 20-25 years. Pavement life can be extended through subsequent treatments such as crack filling, rejuvenative treatments, micro-surfacing and other techniques, all of which assist in keeping the pavement surface as tight as possible to preventing water infiltration.
With the rapid growth that Orland Park experienced in the late 70’s and 80’s, there are more streets that have reached the end of their service life than the annual street paving program can repave. Once the pavement system reaches a certain level of deterioration, the current “mill and overlay” process is not recommended. Once the base and sub-base have been compromised (mixed with mud), the only solution to restore design load-carrying capacity and provide durability is reconstruction, which is very expensive and disturbing within a residential community.
As technology has advanced, engineers have found means to perform a non-invasive analysis of pavements using cameras, laser imagery, and deflection sensors mounted on research vans and trucks. From the images and data gathered as these vehicles drive streets and roads, the condition of the pavement is evaluated and cataloged using GPS technology. Ultimately, the images and data get loaded into a GIS database for further use and reference. The data generated for every pavement section is used to develop a model for pavement performance...
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