Beaufort County seeks better understanding of road conditions

If you live on a Beaufort County road and no one has reported that giant pothole near your driveway, there’s a good chance the county has no idea it’s there.

The county has never conducted a comprehensive analysis of the condition of the pavement on the more than 200 miles of roadway it owns and maintains.

County leaders want that to change.

“We have never had an inventory or road analysis done for the roads, other than someone calling up and saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got potholes or problems with the road,’” Beaufort County Transportation Committee chairman Kraig Gordon said earlier this week.

The committee has decided to seek bids from contractors to perform a full pavement analysis.

“The desire is essentially to be able to see — across the board — how one road compares with another road as far as condition is concerned,” county engineering director Rob McFee said earlier this week.

The ability to compare road conditions is important in making policy decisions regarding the of use limited pavement repair funds, county leaders say.

For example, if the county only has funds to repave one road, it is difficult to decide which road to fix without knowing which roads most need it.

Gordon said a comprehensive analysis would also “provide a benchmark” to allow county engineers to better track pavement degradation over time.

S.C. Department of Transportation performs these studies for state-owned roadways in two to three-year cycles, McFee said.

The transportation committee plans to seek bids for two different types of pavement evaluations.

The first — called a surface condition survey — is “a subjective assessment” that, in essence, simply requires an engineer to observe the roadway and record their observations, McFee said.

This method is “kind of the analog version” of pavement analysis, he said.

McFee estimates it would cost roughly $60,000 to perform a surface condition survey.

The second — and more expensive — option is called a pavement condition index.

This method requires the use of special equipment, typically a van outfitted with a host measurement devices and “decked out like (a spacecraft from) Star Wars,” McFee said.

The data produced in a pavement condition index — such as the type, quantity and severity of pavement damage — is “very, very sophisticated, absolutely objective,” he said.

McFee estimates a contract for this type of service would cost about $105,000.

Regardless of which type of survey the county chooses, Transportation Committee funds would pay for the service.

Committee members expect the bidding process to take several months.

Once bids come in, they will be vetted and passed along to the Beaufort County Council for consideration.

This story was originally published July 22, 2016 at 9:19 AM with the headline "Beaufort County seeks better understanding of road conditions."