Challenges

• Strategically allocate the budget towards preventative maintenance
• Make decisions based on data
• Conduct a cost effective and efficient road assessment

Solution

• Michelin Better Roads: Fast, objective, affordable road assessment

Results

• The township received its road assessment in 30 days
• The time saved allowed its staff to redirect their efforts into other priorities
• As a Roadsoft user, the township also uploaded a shapefile of the road assessment into its software to prioritize maintenance needs based on data

The Public Works Department at Cranberry Township wants their road maintenance to be cost effective and efficient.

Until 2018, Cranberry Township Public Works Department had been proactively managing 135 miles of roads using Roadsoft, a roadway management system for collecting, storing, and analyzing road data. Using Roadsoft’s ratings for road data, Cranberry’s public works team was able to strategically allocate their budget towards preventative maintenance, which ultimately prolonged the lifecycle of roads and avoided expensive reconstruction.

In addition to this process, Bob Howland, Streets and Fleet Manager of Cranberry Township, would drive the entire road network and enter a PASER rating of 1-10 into Roadsoft for thousands of road segments. After weeks of rating the roads, Bob would build the township’s paving program using Roadsoft’s color-coded map of road ratings.

This manual inspection was a cumbersome task that took weeks to conduct. What’s worse, the inspection was subjective.

“It’s a challenge to send one person out regularly to use their best judgement and determine the rating of the road conditions,” said Jason Dailey, Public Works Director of Cranberry Township. “You’re always allowing human error to influence the ratings.”

In order to eliminate these variables, Jason looked into several road inspection services. From contracting with engineering firms to utilizing sensor vans, every option was too expensive – except one: Michelin Better Roads.

The entire road network was driven at normal traffic speed to collect road images, the data was run through the AI model, and the assessment was delivered to the Public Works Department in 30 days.
Cranberry Township saved time and resources. “Now, I have 2 to 3 weeks of time where I can put my crew out on construction jobs and get to work,” said Bob. “Instead of me driving around doing the road assessment, I have those couple of weeks to better manage the crew and department.”

Winters in Western Pennsylvania are brutal on the roads, so public works must inspect them regularly. With Michelin Better Roads’ affordable pricing, the township will now be able to receive regular and consistent road assessments.

“There is a tremendous benefit in having every road looked at every year by the same technology,” said Jason. “There is consistency to the ratings so we could even see year to year how that technology has helped us evaluate our roadways.”

Cranberry Township, PA

“The benefit of having Michelin Better Roads is that they actually have a picture. If I click on a section of the road, I can bring up a picture to justify why that road is rated the way it is. If a resident calls and says they have an issue in front of their house we can easily search on RoadWay and take a picture right off the screen.”

Bob Howland Streets and Fleet Manager, Cranberry Township

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Additionally, Michelin Better Roads provides a shapefile of the road assessments for customers using an asset management system like Roadsoft. Cranberry Township now has the ability to swiftly upload Michelin Better Roads data into Roadsoft instead of entering it manually. With Michelin Better Roads taking care of the road inspection and Roadsoft managing projects, Bob is able to apply the township’s funds towards milling and preventative maintenance.

“We want to make sure we’re making the right decisions before we recommend them to the Board of Supervisors and the Township Manager where we want to spend the resources,” said Bob. “So there’s a lot of time and money invested on our end to manage the data we’re putting together. We have to trust the data that we’re using, and we do trust it.”