City planners are looking for a consultant to analyze and assess all 788 kilometres of St. Albert's roadway network to prioritize maintenance needs in next year's budget.
Although annual roadway assessments are nothing out of the ordinary, city spokesperson Kathy DeJong told the Gazette that in previous years the city would only analyze approximately one third of the entire roadway network each year on a rotating basis, meaning that a full network analysis would be completed every three years.
This year, DeJong said, advancements in industry practices — specifically the use of artificial intelligence (AI) video analysis — has pushed the city to test a complete network analysis for budgeting and planning purposes.
By using AI analysis, DeJong said, "there may be opportunity to complete full network evaluations annually, which the city may consider following an evaluation of process and results.”
The project's corresponding Request for Proposals (RFP) published earlier this month says the consultant will analyze and assess pavement condition data on the entire roadway network, 51 city-owned parking lots, and 12.6 kilometres of back lanes.
The RFP specifies the data will include pavement surface cracking and defects, pavement deformation, surface roughness, and structural adequacy.
“The data collected will be used for the city's decision-making with respect to pavement ... maintenance and reconstruction, thus, the data collection shall be accurate, consistent, repeatable, and assumptions or processes must be documented with possible intent to share or make publicly available,” the RFP reads.
“This will require the successful consultant to not only have the tools and resources but also a complete plan for data quality management.”
The city's RFP states the consultant has a deadline of Sept. 30 to finish the data collection portion of the project.
Roadway treatments
On top of collecting data on roadway conditions city-wide, the successful consultant is also being asked to suggest roadway treatments for any damaged or imperfect areas. Types of roadway treatments include pothole repair, crack sealing, mill and inlay work, and full reconstruction, the RFP reads.
The consultant will be asked to “provide variable treatment and timing recommendations based on different budget scenarios including but not limited to fixed value budget, unlimited budget, or budget needed to maintain a certain condition requirement,” the RFP states.
However, DeJong said city engineers will only partially rely on the treatment recommendations provided by the consultant, as all road areas requiring treatment will be inspected in-person by staff before any maintenance work is budgeted and planned.
“Ultimately, city staff evaluate, qualify, and integrate as appropriate, reported results and recommendations into asset management strategies associated with the roadways and supplemental assets,” DeJong said.
Although DeJong wasn't able to provide an exact budget the city has for hiring a consultant, she said contracts for this type of work are generally over multiple years with an annual value of about $100,000.
Interested companies have until Aug. 3 to submit a proposal for the contract.
