Streets are selected for paving based on recommendations from the Engineering and Transportation Departments.  The recommendations are based on these factors:

Pavement Assessment

-The pavement on every city street has been rated based on a standard 10 point rating system.  The 2017 rating was performed by the firm of EMH&T.  The higher the rating the poorer the street condition.  The goal is to focus on the poor paving for major resurfacing while performing maintenance work on the better streets to protect their paving.

Traffic Counts

-The Lancaster Department of Transportation performs traffic counts to determine the amount of traffic on a street.  The goal is to focus on higher traffic areas that will impact more travelers.

Planned Utility Work

-The Engineering Department works in conjunction with the utility departments to identify streets where utility upgrades are planned.  Paving may be deferred on these streets until after the utility work or paving may be included in the utility project.  The focus is to avoid damage to new pavement and to wisely use the limited funds that are available.

Scope of Required Work

-Streets are evaluated to determine the scope of the needed repairs.  Some streets have poor ratings because of poor soils or base conditions that can only be solved by a complete re-build of the street.  A large project of this magnitude may be beyond the available funds.

Availability of Other Funds

-To stretch our paving dollars, streets that may be eligible for other grants or loans may factor higher in selection.

Location

-It can raise bid costs if equipment has to be moved around town.  To avoid this cost, projects in an area may be grouped together for a bid or an alternate bid.