Executive Summary:
Hart County has an estimated $80,000,000 in road assets including 224 bridge structures, 356 miles of asphalt paved roads, 92 miles of tar and gravel paved roads, and 109 miles of gravel roads. This plan addresses the roads only and a future plan will address the County’s bridge structures.

The value of our road assets has declined due to a lack of a long range plan, neglected maintenance (including resurfacing), and lack of sufficient resources. Currently this plan estimates $7,500,000 in neglected paved road work and an annual investment of over $1,250,000 thereafter to maintain our paved road assets at their current value.

This 5 year plan recommends sealing all asphalt paved roads in year 1 (FY03) at a cost of $387,748 using the road department. By stabilizing the asphalt paved roads this plan assumes the $7,500,000 neglected paved road work will not increase over the five year planning period.

The County has also 92 miles of tar and gravel surfaced roads in various stages of degradation. All these roads are past their design surface life so this plan recommends resealing all 92 miles of tar and gravel roads over the five year planning period. This is estimated to cost $140,000 annually in materials using the road department and will begin in FY03. The current replacement value estimate for the tar and gravel surfaced roads is $3,220,000. If no action is taken to resurface these roads it is estimated that $1,452,500 of tar and gravel road surface will be lost over the five year planning period.

The bridge component of the long range plan is in the process of being finalized however it is estimated that over $600,000 is needed to stabilize our bridge structures over the five year planning period. This investment will preserve over $9,500,000 in bridge structures.
Note on costs- all dollar values presented are 2002 estimated dollars and cost of money considerations are not included for future dollar estimates.

ASPHALT PAVED ROADS

Ranking System:
Hart County’s pavement management program used a similar rating system as the GA DOT system. This system is comprehensive and by utilizing this system Hart County can select roads that will rank higher on the GA DOT system for those roads that the County desires to submit for the various State assistance programs.

This system has basically four parts ranking the condition of the pavement, use of the road (traffic volume), number of structures per mile, and a minor score for the road based on the road’s importance to the road system. This plan ranked each paved road based on these factors and also included a 5th factor for the pavement condition.

This 5th factor determined the amount of two types of cracks that are primarily observed on aged pavements. The first is called transverse and longitudinal cracking (T&L cracking) which are longer widely spaced cracks both parallel and perpendicular in the road pavement. This type of cracking is normally early evidence of future further pavement degradation.

If these cracks are sealed then water can not enter the subsurface below. If water is allowed to enter the subsurface below, the supporting structure of the pavement (base & sub base) weakens causing further cracking.

This further cracking as well as other conditions such as bad base/sub base and truck traffic leads to the second type of cracking which is referred to alligator cracking. These issues are further discussed in the pavement maintenance section of this report. This 5th factor was utilized to divide Hart County paved roads into 5 categories (excellent, good, fair, poor, very poor).

Roads will also be divided into six classes depending on the type of road, traffic, truck traffic. This is important in determining factors such as paint stripping, reconstructing of base, prioritization etc. Classes will be listed as A,B or C depending on the volume of traffic with an A class road having higher traffic.

A number will also be assigned to the ABC classification to define the amount of heavy truck traffic anticipated. Roads that will have heavy truck traffic will be assigned a 2. These roads may need additional base materials when reconstructed.

Causes for Paved Road Degradation:
It is important to understand how paved roads degrade as well as some factors involved in pavement degradation. As shown in figure 1 roads fail for a variety of reasons. Any pavement failure must be corrected and patched prior to resurfacing the road or the pavement failure will appear in the new road in a short period of just a few years. Patching is a costly endeavor estimated to cost approximately $16 per square yard.

Example 1 (Figure 1), shows one type of failure where a tree root enters below the pavement and pushes up the pavement. This type of defect can be corrected by cutting down the tree or cutting the tree root outside the pavement. The damaged area will most likely require patching prior to resurfacing the road.

Example 2 (Figure 1), shows another type of failure where the pavement has degraded through aging of the pavement. As the pavement ages it gets brittle and cracks. These cracks must be sealed to prevent further more costly damage where water enters the base and sub base below the pavement. Depending on the extent and type of cracking, the damaged area may require patching prior to resurfacing the road.

Example 3 (Figure 1), shows another type of failure where no base (or insufficient base) was placed under the pavement when the road was constructed. Asphalt has limited structural capacity at the thicknesses normally placed for surface pavement. Therefore a compacted sub base (dirt) and compacted base (normally stone) must be placed prior to placing an asphalt surface.

When a paved road does not have sufficient base, the road may degrade with loading causing the pavement to fail. The damaged area must be removed and patched prior to resurfacing the road. If the road has been allowed to fail greater than 20% of the road surface and/or the road has excessive loads from heavy trucks, complete replacement of the pavement and base should occur.

To remove the existing pavement, place a new gravel base and pave a road will cost an average $167,000 per mile. There are other methods to recycle the existing pavement by grinding or milling the existing pavement and add additives prior to placing a new road surface. This method can reduce costs to $100,000 per mile.

Example 4 (Figure 1), shows another type of failure where that can be a result of other types of pavement defects outlined above. When a pavement cracks, water can enter the structure below the pavement. This water then weakens the structure below the pavement causing the pavement to fail.

Water can also enter below the pavement when the shoulders adjacent to a road are not cleared to allow water to drain from the pavement. In addition all pipes and ditches must be routinely maintained to allow proper water drainage away from the road surface.

The key to correcting this type of failure is to seal the cracks before they occur and clear shoulders, pipes and ditches to ensure proper water drainage. If this type of failure is not prevented, in most instances, this type of failure leads to alligator type cracking which must be replaced and patched at a cost of $16/sy.

Paved Road Degradation Over Time:
As a pavement ages the pavement develops cracks. If these cracks are not sealed the pavement gets worse as described above. Over time, the rate of pavement degradation increases (i.e. over time cracking and base failure happens faster). As more cracks develop more water gets below the pavement and the pavement failure increases.

Figure 2 illustrates the typical process of road condition changing over time. As time progresses the road condition moves to a lower condition in a less amount of time as shown in the steepness of this graph. The costs shown in this figure at the various condition levels are the estimated costs for resurfacing the road. As the pavement condition worsens the costs to resurface increase dramatically. This is described in much more detail in a later section of this report.

The ideal time to resurface a road is when a road is just past “good” condition prior to the condition worsening to “fair” condition as shown in figure 3. In this manner the road is brought back to the “excellent” condition rating and the life of the pavement is renewed. In addition the cost to bring this road to “excellent” at this point is the lower than if the road is allowed to degrade further.

In this plan it is estimated that a pavement life is 15 years. With 356 miles of paved road, Hart County should be repaving 24 miles of paved road per year at an annual cost of over $1,200,000. Because we have not repaved our roads in a timely fashion some of our roads have degraded to fair, poor and very poor condition. To bring all our paved roads to excellent condition is estimated to cost Hart County $7,500,000.

The dilemma of how to plan for proper pavement management is that all our paved roads are degrading in the same fashion. For example if we resurface our all of our fair condition roads, our roads in excellent, good, and poor condition will get worse and more costly to fix. Taking care of our worst roads first may actually worsen the overall paved road condition higher than the current backlog of $7,500,000.


Excellent Condition Paved Roads:
Paved roads that did not have any significant cracking were ranked as “excellent” condition roads. Fifty two percent (52%) or 183 miles of Hart County paved roads were ranked in this condition. A list of these roads is attached as appendix A.1.

The average life of a paved road is 12 years (including years in “good” condition) and the GADOT reportedly has a 10 year paving cycle. An optimistic estimate of a 15 year pavement life was used in this plan including that an excellent condition road will remain in excellent condition for 10 years prior to moving to the next lowest conditional level of “good” condition (with an additional 5 years in good condition).

Because the records of when roads were paved in Hart County are very limited it is impossible to estimate where an excellent condition road is in its life (i.e. when it was paved last). Therefore this plan assumes that every year 10% of the excellent condition roads will move into good condition (10 years=10%). Other than routine maintenance as described in later sections, no work is proposed for these roads.

Good Condition Paved Roads:
Paved roads where the pavement had less than 10% age cracking (T&L) and less than 5% alligator/fatigue cracking were ranked as “good” condition roads. Roads that had limited alligator cracking were allowed to have a higher percentage of T&L cracking due to the fact that the T&L cracking was apparently not leading to significant alligator cracking. The lack of alligator cracking in these cases indicates that traffic and base conditions are better than normal and thus deserve a higher condition ranking.

Twenty five percent (25%) or 88 miles of Hart County paved roads were ranked in this condition. Again a optimistic estimate was applied that roads will remain in “good” condition for 5 years prior to moving to the next lowest conditional level of “fair” condition. A list of these roads is attached as appendix A.2.

Because the records of when roads were paved in Hart County are very limited it is impossible to estimate where a good condition road is in its life (i.e. when it was paved last). Therefore this plan assumes that every year 20% of the good condition roads will move into fair condition (5 years=20%).

This is the ideal time to resurface a paved road. At this point the cost for resurfacing using the road department (including labor, material and equipment costs) is estimated to be $47,374 per mile. Prior to overlay, all alligator cracking would be removed by deep depth patching with asphalt (estimated to be 3% of road on average).

For the five year plan, the cost to overlay all road in this category would be $4,168,912. This cost is too prohibitive so the five year plan includes $30,976 for temporarily stabilizing these roads by sealing all alligator cracking (at a cost of ($352 per mile,using a chip seal patching method). Other routine maintenance so that water will not stand on the road is described in a later section.

By sealing these roads it is assumed that no further deterioration to the next level of “fair” condition will occur during the planning period.

Fair Condition Paved Roads:
Paved roads that had 10-50% T&L cracking and 5-10% alligator cracking were ranked as “fair” condition roads. Nineteen percent (19%) or 68 miles of Hart County paved roads were ranked in this condition. It was estimated that roads will remain in “fair” condition for 3 years prior to moving to the next lowest conditional level of “poor” condition. At this point the road has developed significant overall age cracking and a fair amount of road fatigue (alligator) cracking. A list of these roads is attached as appendix A.3.

Because the records of when roads were paved in Hart County are very limited it is impossible to estimate where a fair condition road is in its life (i.e. when it was paved last). Therefore this plan assumes that every year 33% of the fair condition roads will move into poor condition (3 years=33%).

When roads reach this condition they have surpassed the ideal time to be resurfaced. At this point the cost for resurfacing using the road department (including labor, material and equipment costs) is estimated to be $57,143 per mile or $9,769 more than roads in “good” condition. If these roads had been resurfaced just 2 to 3 years earlier when they were in “good” condition, the costs for these 68 miles would have been $664,292 less.

The cost for bringing all these roads to excellent condition would be $3,885,724. Because this is too prohibitive, the five year plan suggests immediately stabilizing these roads by sealing all fatigue cracking and major areas of other age cracking.

It is estimated that an average 38% of these road surfaces will be sealed at a cost of $2,432 per mile labor and $1,298 per mile materials using the road department. This will consume 2,400 manhours of road department time in planning year 1. The total cost will be $225,080 in materials plus $88,264 in labor and equipment.

However by sealing these roads it is assumed that these roads will not deteriorate further to the next lower condition rating of “poor” condition. Other routine maintenance so that water will not stand on the road is described in a later section.

A cost analysis of contracting the mass hauling of materials has been performed. It costs taxpayers $3.95 per ton in labor + $12 per ton in materials for the Road Department to haul materials. If we hire a contractor to haul this material the total cost is $13 per ton. An estimated 4,160 tons of stone will be required for this work which will increase the material cost $4,160 however this will save $16,432 in labor and equipment costs.

Poor Condition Paved Roads:
Paved roads that had over 50% T&L cracking combined with 10-20% fatigue/alligator cracking were ranked as “poor” condition roads. Only 3% or 11 miles of Hart County paved roads were ranked in this condition. It was estimated that roads will remain in “poor” condition for 2 years prior to moving to the next lowest conditional level of “very poor” condition. At this point the road has developed more significant overall age cracking and a larger amount of road fatigue cracking. A list of these roads has been attached as appendix A.4.

Because the records of when roads were paved in Hart County are very limited it is impossible to estimate where a poor condition road is in its life (i.e. when it was paved last). Therefore this plan assumes that every year 50% of the poor condition roads will move into very poor condition (2 years=50%).

The cost for resurfacing poor condition roads using the road department (including labor, material and equipment costs) is estimated to increase to $70,817 per mile or $13,674 more than roads in “fair” condition. If these roads had been resurfaced just 4 to 6 years earlier when they were in “good” condition, the costs for these 11 miles would have been $257,873 less.

The cost to bring all these roads to excellent condition would be $778,987. The five year plan suggests immediately stabilizing these roads by sealing all fatigue cracking followed by 100% sealing of the entire road and all other age cracking.

This will consume 1,200 manhours of road department time in planning year 1. The total cost will be $95,810 in materials plus $43,225 in labor and equipment. However by sealing these roads it is assumed that these roads will not deteriorate further to the next lower and very costly condition rating of “very poor” condition.

The cost analysis of contracting hauling materials is estimated to save the County $11,319 in costs.

Other routine maintenance so that water will not stand on the road is also described in a later section.

Very Poor Condition Paved Roads:
Paved roads that had more than 20% fatigue/alligator cracking combined with near complete age cracking were ranked as “very poor” condition roads. Vanna road is 56% of the road miles in this category and may be corrected this year. A list of these roads is attached as appendix A.5.

Only 1% or 5.3 miles of Hart County paved roads were ranked in this condition. When roads have deteriorated to this condition the cost to patch this road is more than 75% of the cost to completely reconstruct the road via a recycled base. Roads in this condition have deteriorated too far and have significant base problems where the structural base will not support a new surface course and should be replaced prior to resurfacing.

If these roads are resurfaced without correcting the base problem, the new asphalt will only last a few years before it begins to fall apart again. This plan presents three options for roads in this condition.

The first option is to tar and gravel these roads at a total cost of $157,830 in labor and materials using the road department. This option may meet with strong opposition from the residents and may not solve the problem of a poor base.

Option #2 is to reconstruct the base by milling the existing asphalt and adding additives to strengthen these materials. This new base is then asphalt surfaced. The total cost for this option is $638,930 using all contracted services. The Road Department could perform the resurfacing and reduce the cash costs (materials only, not labor) by $130,000.

Option #3 is to reconstruct the base by milling the existing asphalt and adding new stone base materials. With this option we may have to remove some materials below the road to lower the road elevation prior to adding new base materials. With this option the roads have been divided into two classes depending on the anticipated truck traffic. Lower truck traffic roads are assumed to need only 4” of stone materials.

Option #3 would cost a total of $621,188 for both labor and materials using the Road Department (contract milling). Material cost only are (and contract milling costs) are $400,390.

5 year plan for paved roads
Year 1:
The cost to repave all roads in good, fair, poor and very poor condition is estimated to be $7,500,000 in materials (not including labor and equipment costs). Because this cost is too excessive for the planning period, in the first year (FY03) the plan suggests stabilizing our roads so that further pavement degradation is minimized. As stated above all roads are continually degrading to a more costly rehabilitative condition with the exception of the very poor condition roads.

As shown in figure 3 above (“Do Nothing (Mtl. Costs)), if we take no action on our paved roads, our paved roads will degrade further and our current debt of $7,500,000 may grow to almost $15,000,000. By stabilizing all roads it is assumed that no further degradation of our paved roads will occur. Therefore it is assumed that these stabilized roads will remain in their current condition rating during the five year planning period.

Currently we use a duropatching or spot chip seal method to temporarily patch our roads. This very cost effective procedure is recommended to be expanded so that all our good condition roads are sealed.

This plan recommends using a chip seal for the fair and poor condition roads in year 1. While this procedure is very cost effective it does have negative drawbacks. The resulting surface is rougher than asphalt and some loose chips (stones) may be temporarily evident.Roads in fair condition are proposed to be sealed only where deterioration has occurred in strips or large patches (estimated to be 40% of the road surface). These patches are too large to use our current duropatch procedure. Poor condition roads would be sealed at all alligator cracking followed by 100% surface sealing.

If we embark on this proposed ambitious road sealing plan we need to plan on replacing our existing gravel spreader. As used gravel spreader will cost about $45,000 and a new one $90,000.