City of Salem Publishes Interactive Road Conditions Map
Mayor Kim Driscoll today announced that the City of Salem has published an interactive online tool that allows residents to easily look up and view the road surface rating condition and recommended paving plan for any segment of the City’s nearly 100 linear miles of public roadway by clicking on the road segment. The new map can be found at www.salem.com/pavingmap and follows on the City’s publication starting in 2016 of an online map showing paving work that has been completed each year.
Salem began evaluating the objective conditions of its roadways in 2010 and, in partnership with the engineering firm BETA, continues to update the road surface ratings and monitor conditions. Road surface ratings, which score from 0 (the lowest) to 100 (the highest) help inform the City’s annual multi-million dollar paving plan allocations and allow the City to set a realistic paving budget based on the repair type necessary for the road segment’s condition.
Starting in 2019 the City began working with BETA to prepare a similar system for evaluating and monitoring Salem’s 148 linear miles of public sidewalks. To date, about half of all sidewalks and all 692 pedestrian crossing ramps have been inventoried and incorporated into the plan. The goal is to complete the remainder of the sidewalk inventory work in 2020. That study has helped guide the City’s investments in sidewalk repairs, reconstruction, and accessibility improvements.
“Through the state’s Chapter 90 funding and our own local funding, the City has worked hard to keep up the condition of Salem’s streets and sidewalks,” said Mayor Driscoll. “We’ve historically relied on the pavement management plan to help determine which roads we’ll repave each year and the manner of the repaving work that will be done. By taking this step to now put the data online in an easy to use, graphical format, our hope is that residents will gain a greater understanding of the nature of work required to keep up our streets and the magnitude of the investments already made to that end.”