Chicopee Council debates if technology will help fix city streets - MassLive.com

CHICOPEE - A discussion about spending $70,000 to implement a new pavement management system which will evaluate the state of all city roads turned into a debate about the condition of city streets and if technology could help improve them.

The Department of Public Works asked the City Council and Mayor Richard J. Kos to approve the purchase of the new system, which would be funded initially with free cash, or money left over from last year's tax revenues. It would later be reimbursed through the state's Chapter 90 grant program which provides all communities with money to make road repairs and purchase equipment.

The department needs a more sophisticated method to decide which roads are in the poorest condition and should be put to the top of the priority list of streets to be resurfaced. Currently the city engineer mostly uses a visual examination of the streets to decide which are in the worst condition, Jeffery Neece, superintendent of public works, said.

Under the program, a van drive down every street and use a high-technology system to collect data about pavement thickness and other things. The program will run on the city's current GIS platform, he said.

"It analyzes all the data and it determines what needs to be resurfaced," he said.

City Councilor Gerard Roy questioned if it is worth spending $70,000 on the system, saying he believes city officials and councilors all know which streets are in the worst condition.

Councilor James K. Tillotson agreed, saying the city receives a limited amount of state highway money and he questioned if the $70,000 would be better spent actually resurfacing a street. The state grants Chapter 90 money annually based on a formula and Chicopee received about $1.2 million in fiscal year 2016, $1.8 million in 2015 and $1.2 million in fiscal year 2014.

"I disagree, I think we need to embrace technology. It will give us a more accurate description of our city streets," Councilor Timothy S. McLellan said.

Councilor Shane D. Brooks agreed saying the system will allow the city to see any deficiencies in any roads so the city may be able to make repairs before there are problems.

One of the issues the city faces is it is forced to be reactive and officials fix problems when they arise. This system would allow them to be proactive and fix deficiencies at a lower cost before they become problems, City Councilor William Courchesne said.

"I will support it. It gives us a snapshot of the health of all the roads in our city," Councilor Frederick T. Kramptis said. "We will have a better idea of how much needs to be done."

But Tillotson said the city has a long list of roadwork needs that would take at least a decade to complete with the current funding available.

Councilor Frank Laflamme said he has some unanswered questions about the system and wanted to know what data will be collected.

He said he wanted to know if the analysis could also examine infrastructure under the pavement. For example the city knows some of the water pipes are 90 years old but do not know what condition they are until they burst.

He asked his fellow councilors to send the issue to committee so the members can ask questions and debate it again. It eventually will be returned to the full City Council with a recommendation of approval or rejection.

The Council voted 12-0 to send it to its Finance Committee.

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