ORD & MDW Pavement Management Services

Chicago, Illinois

DB Sterlin provided engineering services for the Chicago Department of Aviation’s mandatory cycle of 3-year pavement inspections. The project involved field inspection and analysis of current airside and landside pavement conditions, utilizing a combination of ArcGIS software and the MicroPAVER Pavement Management System to determine the Pavement Condition Index (PCI), assist in the creation of the Pavement Condition Report, and create/update Network Definition Maps and PCI Maps using AutoCAD.

The overall project consisted of the utilization of the ArcGIS/MicroPAVER Pavement Management System to inventory and monitor conditions of the airport pavement networks. The system is used to assess current conditions, forecast future conditions, and plan maintenance and rehabilitation activities. The pavement network included airside pavements inside the airfield fence, runways, taxiways, aprons, service roads and parking lots, and landside roadways and parking lots outside the airfield fence. The data collected was used to develop a 10-year Capital Improvement Program, which prioritizes and describes specific maintenance and rehabilitation activities.

MicroPAVER was originally developed in the late 1970s to help the Department of Defense manage maintenance and repair for its vast inventory of pavements. It uses inspection data and a pavement condition index rating from 0 (failed) to 100 (excellent) for consistently describing a pavement’s condition and for predicting its maintenance and repair needs many years into the future. The Chicago Department of Aviation utilizes the MicroPAVER pavement management system to inventory and monitor the condition of Midway International Airport’s pavement network.