The 5-Year Road Plan Explained

THE 5-YEAR ROAD PLAN EXPLAINED

On July 6, 2011, the Board of County Commissioners established the characteristics shown below as the criteria to be used for prioritizing work (prioritization criteria) within the 5-Year Road Plan. In no particular order, these criteria are:

  • Average Daily Traffic (ADT)
  • Condition Index
  • Preservation of Investment
  • Safety
  • Primary Roads versus Secondary Roads

The spreadsheet tool that constitutes the heart of the 5-Year Road Plan was developed through several iterations to arrive at a decision making tool that produces reasonable results. The spreadsheet itself is not the 5-Year Road Plan. The 5-Year Road Plan was constructed using the spreadsheet to calculate priorities. The spreadsheet must be updated as changes occur (when treatments are completed, assessments are updated, roads are reverted to gravel, etc.) on an annual basis in order to be useful in developing the annual update to the Plan and the Budget.

KEY TO THE SPREADSHEET

Priority – The relative position of a road segment as compared to all other road segments in the document

Road - This column lists the road name

Location - This column identifies the road segment location. This information came from several sources including the Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) report, County-generated documents, traffic count data, assessment data, and the HUTF Report.

Classification - This column identifies the road pursuant to the County’s classification system as shown below. The LTAP was not completely consistent with the County’s data regarding Primary Roads. In such cases, the County’s data was used, not the LTAP.

A. Minor Arterial

B. Major Collector

C. Minor Collector

D. Local Access

E. Rural Access

F. Forest/Recreation

Regarding the secondary road classifications only, roads that were referred to in the LTAP as “Residential” roads were changed to “Local Access” roads to match the County’s designation. The secondary road classification PDF from the County’s website does not break the roads down into classifications. Therefore, non-residential secondary roads were not reclassified.

Category – This column identifies the road as a Primary Road or a Secondary Road. Primary and Secondary road identifications were obtained from the County’s website.

Road Surface - This column identifies the road surface as being either Asphalt, Chip Seal, or Unpaved.

Condition Index (CI) - This column shows the CI that was generated as a result of the assessment of those roads. A condition index was calculated using the RSL comments and treatment recommendations for roads that were not assessed. The CIs assigned via this method were assumed to be at middle of the spread. For instance, a Good assessed condition related to a CI of 85. The CI scale as recommended and agreed to is:

  • Excellent 90-100
  • Good 80-89
  • Fair 70-79
  • Poor 60-69
  • Failed/Critical 0-59

Assessed Condition - This column shows the assessed condition of each road segment pursuant to the nomenclature discussed in CI above.

Length (mi) - This column shows the road segment length in miles.

Length (ft) – This column displays the road segment length in feet.

Average Daily Traffic (ADT) - This column shows the ADT for the road segment. Each road segment was checked against the HUTF map to attempt to ensure that the most recent ADT count was used, and that the ADT count was properly placed in the correct road segment.

Year of Inception – The year the road, in its present situation, came into existence if such was known. If unknown the inception year was assumed to be 1998.

Recommended Treatment – The treatment recommended based upon the spreadsheet decision tree is displayed in this column.

Priority was given to maintaining “Good” and “Excellent” Assessed Condition asphalt roads at “Good” and “Excellent” Assessed Conditions.

RESULTS

The resulting spreadsheet shows a total of 337.69 miles of County-maintained roads. A typical county road maintenance list undergoes an ever evolving process of refinement, and Archuleta County’s maintenance list is no exception.

Of the 337.69 miles of County-maintained roads, the overall condition breakdown based on the Condition Indices achieved and the resultant assigned condition categories is shown in the table below:

Overall Condition of County Roads Based Upon Condition Indices

Condition Category Number of miles Percentage of all Roads

  • Excellent 20.74 6%
  • Good 56.14 17%
  • Fair 119.27 35%
  • Poor 66.12 20%
  • Failed/Critical 75.42 22%
  • Totals 337.69 100%

Another way to categorize the condition of the County’s roads is that 42% of County roads are in poor or worse condition; 58% are in fair or better condition.

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