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PASER Reports: Understanding your roads
This page discusses the City of Taylor’s 2021 Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating study, otherwise known as PASER. This study, which is done every two years, helps project future road repairs in the community as part of an overall comprehensive plan for pavement improvements in the City of Taylor.
Over the past ten years the City of Taylor has reinvested millions of dollars annually on our concrete/asphalt local and major road roadways. Over the past two fiscal years alone the City of Taylor has invested nearly $10 million on our local roads and in excess of $13 million on our major roads. The City of Taylor local and major roads are defined by the Act 51 Map issued by the State of Michigan annually to all communities.
New road projects are usually announced officially in the spring and constructed over the summer months after approval of the fiscal budget.
The majority of community roadwork funding is captured through Act 51 (which is essentially the state gas tax). Metro Act 48 can also be the source of some local repair funding. Given that 25 percent of Taylor sits in a Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA), road improvements in some locations can be funded directly by TIFA funding.
The City has historically attempted to stretch its available road repair dollars as far as possible. The concrete roadways are improved by the concrete panel replacement program versus complete concrete reconstruction projects whenever possible. Replacing concrete panels when possible focuses on fixing problematic areas of the roadway without replacing the entire thoroughfare and keeps costs in relative check. The asphalt roadways are resurfaced with a new wearing and leveling course of asphalt after the removal of the existing asphalt surface.
The PASER study involves inspecting every street in Taylor, and rating its “health.” The ratings vary from 1 (failed) to 10 (excellent) and everywhere in between.
The color key is located on the bottom of the maps. Gray lines represent roadways that are not in the City’s jurisdiction (state, county, private, etc.). Orange are failed roadways; shades of purple and gold represent poor; khaki, yellow and lime represent fair; dark green is good; light blue very good; and dark blue excellent,
This year, the City’s PASER study was rolled out in three separate PDF maps. One shows the ratings of all roadways; the second the ratings of only asphalt roadways; and the third the ratings of only concrete roadways.
The system was developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Transportation Information Center. The visual inspection to evaluate pavement surface conditions, when assessed correctly, provides a basis for comparing the quality of roadway segments. The advantage of this method is that roads may be assessed consistently, constantly and quickly.
In and of itself, the PASER study does not define the schedule of the roadwork, but acts as a guide to determine severely compromised areas. Communities are required to prioritize, focusing first on major roads. After major roads, City officials evaluate the local roads for “greatest need,” which involves traffic volume, school access, etc. The City also analyzes residential complaints about roads annually and factors them into the overall equation.