Mayor James J. Fiorentini > Press Release

June 27, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Mayor Fiorentini Announces a Study of the City’s Roadways

HAVERHILL- Mayor James J. Fiorentini announced today that the City has contracted with the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission (MVPC) to conduct a computerized pavement management system for Haverhill’s roadways. With the rising costs of roadway reconstruction and rehabilitation, as well as limited financial resources, City officials have recognized the value in long-range planning to preserve and enhance the overall condition of the roadways that they oversee through effective pavement management programs.

“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,” explained the Mayor.“I’m pleased to undertake such a worthwhile project with such professionalism and technology,” stated the Mayor.

The City of Haverhill covers approximately 34 square miles and owns and maintains approximately 425 curb lane miles of roads.The replacement value for Haverhill’s roadway network is estimated at approximately $45,000,000.

Using mobile computing technology, Merrimack Valley Planning Commission civil engineering staff will conduct a pavement distress survey of each street within the community and will carefully categorize, measure, and record the extent and severity of individual pavement distresses 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.

Public Works Director Michael Stankovich notes that the resulting street database will provide the City’s Public Works Department with management reports including listings of streets with their condition rating, level of repair that is needed, repair methods and costs, and other valuable management information.This information will assist with the identification of strategies to determine appropriate street maintenance and re-construction activities.

Mayor Fiorentini indicated that the new pavement management system will be an important tool to prioritize roadway maintenance activities and thus better allocate scarce city resources. He anticipates that the survey work will be completed by late Fall 2008.

Mayor Fiorentini will be joined by DPW Director Michael Stankovich to present a demonstration of this new pavement management technology on Wednesday, July 2nd at 11AM on Newcomb Street near Cherry Street.Please send reporter and photographer.