Pavement Management Program

Pavement Management Program

Each summer, Harford County visually inspects and rates the existing condition of the 647 miles of asphalt roads maintained by the County. Upon completion of this inspection, the road is assigned a condition rating. The condition rating is a number between 1 and 100 with 100 being the highest condition rating indicating the road is in excellent condition and no repairs are needed. With this information, the County determines which roads need to receive preventive maintenance, which need to be resurfaced, and which need to be reconstructed.

No Repairs Necessary - Roads with condition ratings above 75 do not require repairs.

Preventative Maintenance - Roads with condition ratings between 65 and 75 require preventative maintenance. These roadways have no stone or subgrade soil base failures evident, the surface is in excellent condition showing only the early stages of fatigue, some crack sealing is required. These roads are treated with a thin lift overlay.

Resurfaced Roads - Roads with condition ratings between 50 an 65 require resurfacing. These roadways have some stone or subgrade soil base failure (less than 10% of the area), the surface no longer has proper pavement cross slope or roadway slope grade and a significant amount of roadway surface cracking is evident. These roads have areas cut and patched, significant amounts of wedge and leveling using hot mix asphalt, the cracks are sealed, and the road surfaced with 2" of hot mix asphalt.

Reconstructed Roads - Roads with condition ratings less than 50 require reconstruction. These roadways have significant amounts of stone or subgrade soil base failures, the roadway no longer has proper pavement cross slope or road slope grade, and large areas of the roadway surface are missing. These roads need to be totally rebuilt with the base and surface removed and replaced.