IMS pores over streets

SANDPOINT — If you see a white van circling your neighborhood, chances are its Infrastructure Management Services crews measuring pavement roughness, cracking and other surface distress.

Crews began work to scan the city’s streets Friday, with plans to continue through the weekend and into next Tuesday. Sandpoint residents may notice the van circling their neighborhood as it makes multiple passes on city streets to cover both sides, Sandpoint City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton said in an email to the Daily Bee.

The 2018 white Ford Transit van is equipped with a laser road surface tester, Stapleton said. The RST consists of two roof-mounted laser scanners mounted on the rear of the vehicle pointing straight down. The scanners measure pavement roughness, rutting, cracking and other surface distresses.

“They will completing a detailed inventory and condition rating of all of our streets in Sandpoint,” Stapleton said on the city’s Facebook page. “The data they collect will be loaded into an asset management program specifically designed to assist us with the development of a data-informed, objective long-term rehabilitation plan and budget as part of our Multi-modal Transportation Master Plan.”

With roadway forming the economic lifeline of a community, IMS officials said in a press release that the RST system collects valuable data on a client’s infrastructure.

“As the roadway networks and infrastructure became more extensive, so did the need for information on these assets,” company officials said in a press release. “Thus, the agencies responsible for these assets have also been seeking efficient and affordable ways to collect accurate and timely pavement condition and right of way inventory data.”

Answering basic questions from the number of signs to condition of street pavement can seem a never-ending task. Tempe, Ariz.-based firm IMS Infrastructure Management Services helps cities and counties compile a detailed inventory and condition rating of all roadways and select right of way assets. The data helps the municipalities develop long-term rehabilitation plans and budgets. In addition to measuring pavement condition, it also collects digital video and Global Positioning Satellite information for cataloging right of way assets.

The second phase establishes the load-carrying capacity of specific arterial and collector roadways using a device known as a Dynaflect, which compiles multi-sensor dynamic deflection data for pavement structure analysis.

Once all of the data is collected, it will be combined, loaded in to the asset management application, and used to develop a series of reports that will allow the client to cost effectively budget the long-term maintenance of the roadways, IMS officials said.