John McLaughlin with Fisher and Arnold Inc. marks the spot of the distressed pavement on Hornbrook Street as a part of the city's new pavement management program. The city board recently contracted with Fisher and Arnold, Inc. to assess the condition of all of the streets in Dyersburg. Using GIS and GPS technology, the information will be stored and compiled to rate the streets for paving and maintenance purposes.

Using GIS and GPS technology, city officials will soon have information on street and sidewalk conditions throughout the city at their fingertips. The data can then be used to determine where problem areas like potholes, cracks and rough spots are and which streets to repair as funds allow.

With paving funds available from the state dwindling and city budgets all over the region tightening, choosing the order to pave city streets is getting harder all the time. Disappointed residents whose roads may not have made the list sometimes can only guess why their street was not chosen.

Dyersburg city officials will end that speculation and streamline the decision-making process for street maintenance through a contract with Fisher and Arnold Inc. The contract will allow the city to take the guesswork, speculation and politics out of repairing streets throughout town. Using the latest GIS and GPS technology, engineers have begun to assess the condition of all city streets and pinpoint potholes, cracks and areas of distress. The company will use the information to rate the streets in greatest need of repair.

"The city spends a whole lot of money paving streets," said Fisher and Arnold GIS Department head Vic Young. "This takes the subjectivity out of it. It really gives you some data to plan (your maintenance.)"

"Over the course of the last four or five years, the city's street-paving program has dwindled," said City GIS manager Carmen Cupples. "With budgets getting as tight as they are, this is going to play an important part in deciding which streets to pave. The city has contracted with Fisher and Arnold Inc. out of Memphis to assess the conditions of all the streets in Dyersburg because they are so bad."

Distressed portions of the street will be marked and downloaded into a database, with potholes, cracks and rough patches marked with GPS coordinates.

"(The firm will) rate the streets from 10 to 100, with 100 being the best," said Cupples. "This will be based on the condition and the type of street. Residential streets in bad shape may not rank as high as a street with a large volume of traffic."

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Cupples said that while Fisher and Arnold will spend the next four to five weeks compiling the initial analysis of roads in the area, the program will be maintained and updated by the city.

"What we'd like to get to eventually is to target and fix a pothole and then update the list," said Young.

"What that does is give us a great tool to evaluate each city street and prioritize the maintenance and paving of each street," said Cupples. "If we can make this available online then the mayor, aldermen and even residents can look up a street and see where the problems are and where it ranks on the list."

The contract also provides assessments on sidewalks, curbs and gutters throughout the city.

"Also, part of the information is checking ADA compliance for wheelchairs on sidewalks and curb inlets," said Cupples. "We are also measuring street width and whether the street has curbs, gutters and sidewalks so we can know exactly how many curbs and gutters the city has to maintain."

Fisher and Arnold field personnel will be in the area for approximately four to five weeks collecting information. Workers will be wearing vests and hard hats along city streets, so residents are requested to use caution while driving in the area.