Importance of Pavement Management

It would cost over $13 million to resurface all of Town of North Reading’s 79 miles of roadway. An investment this important should be carefully preserved and maintained for our residents. North Readings’ Pavement Management Program does just that.

The Pavement Management Program seeks to balance preservation with replacement of existing surfaces. The most cost-efficient way to correct any street surface problem is to address issues when they first appear. That is why funds are targeted at streets rated in fair-to-good condition. Without this preventive maintenance, these streets would quickly deteriorate and be much more costly to fix. Asphalt paving material that was $40/ton in 2008 has increased to over $70/ ton in 2014.

The pavement life curve shown below illustrates this point. Pavement may appear to be in good condition for a long time. However, when it fails, it fails quickly and repair costs increase dramatically. Preventive maintenance, such as crack sealing, microsurfacing, and pavement cut restoration, extends the life of our valuable street system. In addition to lowering costs over time, other advantages of our Pavement Management Program include more predictable funding needs, fewer premature pavement failures, safer road conditions and reduced time spent in traffic due to construction.  We have also significantly increased the miles of roads receiving treatment from 1.5 miles/year to an average of 6.5 miles/year.