"DC
Streets" is a Capital Success
For Washington,
DC, drivers, the ride is looking and feeling smoother. Launched with
fanfare in June 2000, the "DC Streets" initiative constituted
the first urban, performance-based asset management project in the
United States. The District of Columbia Division of Transportation
(DDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and its engineering
services consultant, Science Applications International Corporation
(SAIC), worked together to develop the project. DDOT then awarded
a contract to a private firm, VMS, Inc., to preserve and maintain
approximately 121 km (75 mi) of the major streets and highways in
the District. These roads make up the District's portion of the National
Highway System (NHS) and are heavily used by residents, commuters,
and tourists. A recent assessment of the first year of the project
showed that substantial progress has been made toward meeting the
contract's performance measures.
Assets
that are being maintained under the 5-year, $70 million experimental
contract include tunnels, pavements, bridges, roadside features (including
curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and retaining walls), pedestrian bridges,
roadside vegetation, and such traffic safety equipment as guardrails,
barriers, impact attenuators, impact attenuators, and signs. Also
covered is snow and ice control. Roads throughout the city have been
worked on, including Pennsylvania Aveneue, I-295, and New York Avenue.
The performance-based nature of the contract means that instead of
specifying the materials or methods to be used, the desired outcome
is outlined and it is then up to the contractor to achieve it. The
contract is the largest transportation investment in DDOT's history
and also represents the first time that FHWA has teamed directly with
a city government on a program to preserve its highway infrastructure.
The evaluation
compared the condition of the assets against the performance measures,
providing an overall score and a score for each maintenance category.
A score of 100 would mean that, on average, the condition of the assets
meets the performance goal. The overall score for the first year of
the contract was 92. "We're very pleased with the progress that's
been made so far. The trends are going up in all categories,"
says Shannon Moody of VMS. "DC Streets has brought a lot of improvement
to the NHS, although we still have a ways to go in realizing the goals
of the initiative," says Edward A. Sheldahl of FHWA.
Reaction
from the city has been positive also. "We've received a lot of
feedback from residents and community members telling us that they
think we're doing a good job," says Moody. The evaluation report
noted that "the first year.showed a marked decrease in negative
feedback from the public and press. Probably the most noted change
was the lack of pothole complaints, which have plagued DDOT in years
past."
"Contracting
this work to VMS has brought wonderful results to our residential
neighborhood and to the city as a whole," said Maria Taylor,
Commissioner of the Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood
Commission. Washington, DC, resident Jim Wheeler noted the "prompt
and good work VMS and its subcontractors have performed in repairing
street signs, removing abandoned meter posts, installing temporary
sidewalk patches, and repairing tree boxes along Wisconsin Avenue
and on sections of M Street in Georgetown."
One of
the contract's goals is to use innovative methods and procedures for
infrastructure maintenance. Innovative technologies used by VMS in
the first year included a mobile spray pothole patcher. The contract
also has the goal of revitalizing the communities where the maintenance
is being performed. During the first year, VMS worked with local community
development organizations, participated in community projects, and
focused on hiring local residents and businesses.
Word
of the success of DC Streets is spreading. Presentations on the project
were made last year at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting,
Mid Atlantic Quality Assurance Workshop, and the FHWA Eastern Area
Engineering Conference. Project staff also met with delegations from
Ireland, Northern Ireland, Finland, and the Southern Africa Development
Community.
For more information on the DC Streets initiative, contact Luke DiPompo
at DDOT, 202-654-6134 (fax: 202-645-6129), Michael Kirk at VMS, 804-553-4001
(email: mkirk@vmsom.com), or
Edward A. Sheldahl at FHWA, 202-219-3514 (fax: 202-219-3545; email:
edward.sheldahl@fhwa.dot.gov).
