Projects

Polk County Phase 1, Scope of Services Business Review, Software Evaluation and Selection

Project Description

The Problem: The Roads & Drainage Division of Polk County, Florida needed a new, systematic, consistent and reproducible method of determining priorities and optimal timing of improvements to sustainably manage the pavement preservation of its roadway system. The County therefore wanted to identify and implement a new pavement management system and selected The Kercher Group (TKG) to help them achieve this goal by providing pavement asset management and engineering guidance.

The Solution: The Kercher Group conducted a business process review of the current As-Is processes and software capabilities, and identified requirements. TKG then conducted a condition survey of the county’s roads and created a new set of indices and reporting as desired by Polk County to support a consistent method of identifying optimum timing of treatments. TKG then undertook a task to evaluate and compare the current software platform used by the County with available agreed upon pavement management software packages, and ultimately help the County select a new system to best meet the previously established needs and goals.

Benefits: Based on this project, Polk County were able to obtain a thorough independent review of their current practices which resulted in multiple recommendations for process and system improvements. With the subsequent implementation phase of this project, these improvements will help the County make better, more strategic and optimized, pavement planning and programming decisions. This improved decision making will in turn help the County justify and maintain a sustainable funding stream for a full range of treatments, backed up by a new, optimized, and data driven pavement management framework.

Responsibility: Asset Management Program Management

Components:

• Business Process Review
• Condition Survey
• Software Systems Evaluation

Businesses Process Review – TKG conducted a review of the County’s current business processes related to its Pavement Resurfacing Program. TKG worked closely with key staff to:

• Review current practices and policies.
• Identify and assess suggested refinements in practices and policies.
• Review existing software capabilities.
• Identify specific software requirements to best meet the County’s business processes and necessary system capabilities.

Pavement Condition Survey and Methodology Development – TKG developed a new condition rating methodology and developed definitions of the critical distresses to be evaluated, as well as, the severities and extents of those distresses. Individual condition indices were developed for each distress type, as well as, multiple combined condition indices including structural, environmental (preservation) and functional indices. TKG then completed a Pavement Condition Survey of County roadways. Based on the survey, TKG computed distress indices for comparison with the County’s existing process which validated the need for the business change.

Requirements Development and Software Evaluation – TKG reviewed and defined various aspects of the selected software solutions in sufficient detail to support the County’s decision process regarding Pavement Management development. As part of this effort, TKG completed a comprehensive evaluation of pavement management software solutions, including the development of the detailed evaluation criteria based on a review of analytical capabilities, data governance, integration with the County’s existing systems and overall user experience.

Pavement Management Implementation – Upon the finalization of the software selection phase, the next phase of the project was to conduct a full implementation phase of work including developing the software configuration needs, developing the deterioration models, completing software configuration, system testing, development of Standard Operating Procedures and staff training of the software.

All tasks were completed on time and within budget.