 For almost as long as there have been roads, there have been professionals responsible for maintaining those roads, road agent, road supervisor, pavement manager, whatever the title, it never has been an easy job. Though our understanding of how to build better roads has increased and technology has advanced, today's road superintendent faces all of the maintenance problems of his predecessors, plus the pressures of ever tightening municipal budgets. To his advantage, he can call upon powerful sophisticated time and labor-saving tools such as the road reclaimer, high production profilers, the automated paver, and the tape measure. That's right, the humble tape measure is one of the simple instruments vital to the latest road management systems, and these road rating programs are really powerful tools. They provide many benefits to the town while helping the road supervisor perform his job more efficiently. An inventory of your road system eliminates guesswork. You have a record of every mile of road, and you know what its condition is. You get the information you need to anticipate needed repairs and improvements in your road system. That enables you to make repairs in a planned, cost-efficient manner. Maintenance needs are documented in specific numbers. You can demonstrate to town officials where road problems exist and project what they will cost to repair. That allows you to determine a total budget to repair all problems or to show which repairs will be deferred if the budget is cut. Established logical maintenance plans for the whole road network will allow you to resist pressure from individuals who want their road fixed first. Should town officials be sued due to an accident caused by a road maintenance problem, the courts are less likely to award damages when the town is following a documented road maintenance plan. So road management systems make sense for many reasons. But what's involved in putting such a plan together? There are several steps to be followed carefully, and a nominal software charge, but nothing terribly difficult. The rest of this tape will show you how to use a management system for unsurfaced roads that has been developed by the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. It's called the Unsurfaced Roads Management System. The field manual, Rating Unsurfaced Roads, will give you even more detail if you decide to use the program. At the end of this video, we'll tell you how to get more information. In a nutshell, here's how the program works. First, roads are divided into representative sections called sample units. Next, all the problems within these sample units are measured and noted. Then with these measurements as a basis, a few simple calculations yield a number for each sample unit called the Unsurfaced Roads Condition Index, or U-R-C-I. Usually the superintendent's role is to choose the sample units and do the calculations. The road crew does the actual measurements. Now let's take a closer look at the process. First, we need to choose our sample units. This step takes some patience. It must be done carefully, but it's only done once since these same sample units will be studied yearly. Start with a map of all of your roads. To make sure that the sample units are truly representative of all of your roads, we will go through a three-step process. First, branches. Divide your roads into major recognizable units. In many cases, these will be entire roads. Identify branches with existing names whenever possible. Here we call Boot Hill Road BHR. Next, sections. Sections are parts of branches where road conditions are uniform. For example, Boot Hill Road shows four sections. BHR 1 is a mile-long gradual hill, pretty much the same throughout. After the intersection with Dodge Road, there is less traffic, so we call it BHR 2. BHR 3 has still different characteristics because it runs through a poorly drained area, and BHR 4 is a parking area for the town pond. Once you've chosen the sections, label them clearly on a map. Finally, we divide the sections into sample units, where conditions will be studied. In general, sample units are about 100 feet long, and you will want to take detailed distress measurements on about two of these per mile. Mark your sample units well, both on maps and with permanent stakes at the site. This stretch of BHR 3 has a problem with potholes, so we chose a sample unit that includes some of the potholes and some of the good road. The field manual will give you more details about making these divisions. With all sample units selected, mapped and marked, measurement may begin. As with any scientific procedure, consistency is vital. Be sure that your crew understands the importance of their surveys. Observations should be made at the same time each year, when the roads are in their best condition, and data must be gathered in a consistent fashion from year to year and from crew to crew. As the crew makes measurements, they fill out an unsurfaced road inspection sheet. They will measure seven distress types for quantity and severity. With this information, you will be able to calculate a rating called the Unsurfaced Road Condition Index for each sample unit. This index, based on careful measurement, gives you an easily understood profile of the condition of each road. The calculation may be done manually or with a computer program called Micropaver. To perform the calculation manually, refer to the Unsurfaced Road Inspection Sheets turned in by your crews. Start by determining density of each distress type. Divide the amount of the distress by the area of the sample, then multiply by 100. Here you have 100 linear feet of improper cross-section, and the total area of the sample unit is 1800 square feet, so the density is 5.6. Next, refer to the curves in the field manual for each distress type. An improper cross-section of low severity with a density of 5.6 yields a deduct value of 13. When you've determined all of the deduct values for the sample unit, add them to get the total deduct value. Here it's 64. The number of individual deduct values greater than 5 determines the Q value. Here we compute a Q of 3. Relating these two figures to the U-R-C-I curve, we find an Unsurfaced Road Condition Index of 59 for this sample unit. A section total is the average of all the sample units in the section, and the rating for the whole system is the average of all sections. See the manual for more detail. Now, how do we utilize this figure? Well, you may use the U-R-C-I to develop priorities for maintenance. If you set an overall target index of 65 and your current rating is 50, you can use the index to determine which roads you should improve with available funds. Since all improvements will probably not be completed this year, the data is useful in justifying next year's budget. The index also gives you a basis for projecting future requirements and tracking road deterioration with time. When the program has been in place for two or three years, you will know what maintenance practices work best on your roads and what they cost. This data will make budget forecasting easier and more accurate. These are just a few of the ways that this management tool will help you to do your job better. As you become accustomed to using the system, other benefits will become apparent. Contact CREL for the latest information on how to get started with road management. We'll send you a copy of the Unsurfaced Roads Field Manual. Also available is a videotape on proper road inspection techniques for the Unsurfaced Roads Condition Index.