If Haverhill were to replace all of its roads, it would cost about $45 million, according to estimates by a regional planning agency.
Repavement of the city's roads happens piece by piece, and comes with assistance from the state and federal governments, yet it's still an expensive undertaking.
Mayor James Fiorentini said the city will contract with the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission to work on a computerized pavement management system for Haverhill's roadways. With the rising costs of reconstruction and rehabilitation, as well as limited financial resources, Fiorentini joins city officials in other communities, such as Methuen, who have recognized the value in long-range planning to preserve and enhance the overall condition of the roads they oversee, he said.
"The pavement management system will use the most current industry standards to evaluate and analyze pavement performance of our streets in order to arrive at the most cost-effective solution in the repair and maintenance of Haverhill's streets," Fiorentini said.
The city of Haverhill covers approximately 34 square miles and owns and maintains approximately 425 curb lane miles of roads.
Using mobile computing technology, Merrimack Valley Planning Commission's civil engineering staff will survey each street, looking for pavement "distress." It will categorize, measure and record the extent and severity of individual pavement problems on each street. The survey will also include the collection of the other roadway attributes such as roadway segment lengths and widths, roadway average weekday traffic volumes, etc. This information will be entered into a computerized pavement management software database, according to the planning commission.
Haverhill Public Works Director Michael Stankovich said the resulting street database will provide the Public Works Department with management reports including listings of streets with their condition rating, level of needed repair, methods that can be used to repair the streets, the cost of the repairs, and other information about managing the roadway.
The information will help the DPW decide which streets can be maintained without having to be resurfaced, and which need to be reconstructed, Stankovich said.
Fiorentini said the pavement management system will be an important tool to prioritize road maintenance and better allocate scarce city resources. He anticipates that the survey work will be completed by late fall of this year.
