Members of the Lamar County Board of Supervisors recently declined to take part in a pavement management plan offered by the Southern Mississippi Planning and Development District that would, among other measures, set up a website with video to monitor every county road in the district’s jurisdiction.
The plan was presented at a recent board meeting by Kristyn Gunter, Business Outreach Division Director for SMPDD, who said district officials would monitor the roads and conduct certain preservation treatments designed to extend the life of pavement on the roads. Lamar County Administrator Jody Waits said supervisors considered participating in the plan, but declined because the county’s road officials already handle in-house most of the work the SMPDD would be doing on the roads.
“They determined that what we’re doing currently is working for the supervisors and our road department,” he said. “The city of Hattiesburg is using it because they obviously see a value in it helping them, and Forrest County is as well.
“But with our county, we’ve been doing this process in a manual way for some time, where other entities may not have been. So what they’re saying is that (our road crews), on pen and paper and through driving, have determined this. So through our $2 million a year in budgeting for road improvements, we’ve stayed on top of our roads, and don’t see the current need to spend additional dollars.”
Under the proposed plan, a survey crew would drive every road in the jurisdiction, documenting road condition – including cracking and rutting – potholes, striping, and curbs and gutters. Truck-mounted video would be captured, with all data linked with GPS.
The SMPDD Civil-Link Team also would provide hands-on training to elected officials and staff, including a pavement preservation treatments workshop, a training website and PASER scale training.
“We drive the roads and collect the truck-mounted video, but then also mark potholes, turn lanes, bike lanes,” Gunter told supervisors. “All of that information is brought into the GIS data, and that comes back in-house to you.
“So it helps to beef up what you may already have within your planning department, and helps to support and update a lot of that data.”
Federal funds have been made available from the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which would cover approximately 80 percent – or about $60,000 – of the project. Lamar County would have been responsible for the remaining 20 percent, or about $13,000.
