By Staff Reports
(Honolulu)—Mayor Peter Carlisle announced that the City’s push to improve Oahu’s road conditions will include cutting-edge data collection technology and development of a sustainable Pavement Management System.
“Our goals are to make good roads last longer and stop potholes before they even start, and to make sure bad roads are identified early and scheduled for proper repairs,” Carlisle said. “The award of the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization grant will provide the City with the resources to create a scientific, sustainable approach to road maintenance.”
The data collection system, known as Mars, features a vehicle equipped with earthmine technology and high-resolution cameras that will capture panoramic imagery and precise location data to facilitate road maintenance and repairs.
The Pavement Management System, funded by a $1,050,000 federal grant received on June 29 through the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, will include the creation of a comprehensive database of roads and conditions.
The information will help officials identify and track road conditions so that various pavement preservation techniques can be used to make roads last longer, facilitate better maintenance, improve safety and decrease long-term repair costs. The information will also be used to develop recommendations for rehabilitation and reconstruction of City-managed roadways.
The City is evaluating several pavement preservation treatments, including crack sealing, which prevents water from reaching the road base and is a foundation of all other treatments; fog seal, a rejuvenating topical treatment to retard oxidation; seal coat, which uses emulsion and sand to cover edges of minor cracks and stabilize the wearing surface to reduce road degradation; and slurry seal, a heavy layer that creates a new wearing surface to minimize damage to the road base.