Funding and Maintenance Issues for Walkways: March 15, 2016

A Fairfax County, VA, publication
Department of Public Works and Environmental Services
Working for You!
FAIRFAX COUNTY TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY COMMISSION
FAIRFAX COUNTY TRAILS AND SIDEWALKS COMMITTEE
MARCH 15TH 2016 JOINT MEETING
FUNDING AND MAINTENANCE ISSUES FOR WALKWAYS
Maintenance and Stormwater Management Division
March 15, 2016

TAC/TSC MARCH 15, 2016 JOINT MEETING: FUNDING & MAINTENANCE ISSUES FOR WALKWAYS
PROVIDED QUESTIONS:
• I was asked to prepare my discussion for the joint TAC/TSC meeting on March
15, 2016, based on the following questions:
• 1. What is the current funding mechanism for trail maintenance?
• 2. What would be the ideal budget for maintaining existing county
trails?
• 3. What can be done to increase trail maintenance funding in the
County?
• 4. What are the legal and liability considerations for trail
maintenance or lack thereof?
• 5. How does County staff prioritize trails and sidewalks for
completion and for maintenance. Does it have “tiers” of trail and
sidewalks quality and connectivity? If the County was able to secure
additional funds for maintenance, how would County staff recommend
the funds be allocated across the approximately 700 miles of Fairfax
County walkways?
2

AGENDA:
I’m going to review some metrics for a baseline perspective and rearranged the questions into the
following agenda:
• 1. Inventory metrics and background information:
• County Inventory metrics and other GIS inventory estimates
• Who maintains
• Who installs
• Current Walkway Condition
• 2. What is the current funding mechanism for walkway maintenance?
• 3. What are the legal and liability considerations for the lack of walkway
maintenance?
• 4. How does County staff prioritize walkway repairs and maintenance:
a) Does it have “tiers” of trail and sidewalks quality and connectivity?
b) With the increased funding, how would County staff recommend the
funds be allocated across the approximately 669 miles of Fairfax
County walkways and 69 pedestrian bridges?
• 5. What would be the ideal budget for maintaining existing County
walkways?
• 6. What can be done to increase walkway maintenance funding in the
County?
3

#1a: INVENTORY:
• Who Maintains Walkways:
• Maintenance and Stormwater Management Division
669 miles of walkways and 69 pedestrian bridges:
– 238 miles of trails
– 51 miles of School Sidewalks(cut-through walkways for convenience/school bus vs walking)
– 380 miles of Public Street Sidewalks
• Fairfax County Park Authority
– 323 miles of Stream Valley trails and others
• Virginia Department of Transportation
– 1700 miles of Public Street Sidewalks
– Very few trails (e.g., Sections of Beulah Road, Fairfax Parkway)
• Other Agencies / Volunteer Organizations / Homeowners Associations
1100 miles:
– Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority
– Internal HOA Walkways - Public Access Easements
– Private Equestrians
– Federal
4

#1b: BACKGROUND:
Who Installs Walkways:
• Developers constructed the majority of walkways as required:
– Subdivision Ordinance
– Comprehensive Plan (Trails Plan)
– Proffers
– Public Facilities Manual
• Public entities or other groups such as volunteers, through
discretionary spending: e.g., 2007 Bond Referendum of $15 million
for Pedestrian improvements and the Nov 4, 2014, $100 million
transportation bond referendum, of which approximately $78 million
has been allocated to pedestrian improvement projects. Private and
federal walkways projects.
5

#1c: Current Walkway Condition:
• Complete Walkway Assessment was completed Fall of 2013:
– Provided 8500 geo-located photos with associated assessment metadata
– Hyper-linked the photos and assessment data into the GIS
– Defects: e.g. castings, cracking, faulting, obstructions, settlements etc.
6

7

8

• Results: Countywide Summary:
– Poor Condition #1 is considered hazardous and in need of repair now
– Fair Condition #2 are deteriorating walkways and will need repair or
become Condition #1 within 5-10 years (Study Late 2013 so now 2-7 years)
9

• Trouble with Point Assessments: Fixing the aforementioned
failed point sections only provides a patchwork of repairs that
will not renew the trails but simply this still only takes care of a
failure in a reactive approach. Note sidewalks are different and
can be done by sections but still there are other factors to
consider.
• Staff recommends a proactive annual renewal program for the
existing County walkways and pedestrian bridges for sustainable
reasons.
10

#2: Funding mechanism for walkway maintenance
• Operational Funding ($360,000): for the funding of staff, 5.50 FTE
(maintenance crews) and 0.25 FTE (part time engineering support),
and a smaller amount for tools/dump fees/materials and CLF support.
This fund supports MSMD staff for: vegetation clearing, welding (hand
rails/pedestrian bridges), painting, spot trip hazards, carpentry
support (pedestrian decking), small area damage by storms (trees
blocking/trail damage), and spot ADA
• Capital Maintenance Funding (proposed 3rd quarter adjustment:
$837,664 + proposed FY17 $400,000): larger project/repairs, walkway
rehab, more/larger ADA projects, larger bridge projects, special skills
(consultant/contractors), and larger volume of work (MSMD crews
have decreased from the mid-1980’s although the inventory has
significantly increased).
• BOS contingency funding or support: 2 bridge projects, 2 walkway
repairs, and developer proffer funding for maintenance.
• Volunteer Work: Reston Association, GFTB, and HCCA
11

#2: Funding mechanism for walkway maintenance
• Maintenance Expenditures Per Mile of Walkway
Note: 81 miles (12%) is less ten years old and 258 miles (39%) is older than 20 years old
Note: Net worth of the walkways and pedestrian bridges is approximately $220 Million
12
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
InThousandsof$
Inventory
Capital Maintenance Budget
Miles

#3: Legal and liability considerations:
• I am a professional engineer and an asset manager not a lawyer
• However, as an Asset Manager I believe walkways promote
multi-modal solutions for ongoing traffic problems and well
maintained walkway:
– Encourages exercise as well as other health benefits related to an active
and healthy lifestyle
– Reduces carbon footprint and promotes air quality improvement
– Provides more social spaces and better/easier neighborhood watch
viewpoints and improves community connectivity
– Improves neighborhood housing values and provides economic
improvement benefits
– Promotes safety; walking on the edge of the road when walkways are not
present or damaged is dangerous.
13

#4 How does County staff prioritize walkway repairs and maintenance
• Do you have “tiers” of trail and sidewalks quality and connectivity?
• With the increased funding, how would County staff recommend the
funds be allocated across the approximately 669 miles of Fairfax County
walkways and 69 pedestrian bridges?
• We used the Assessment Study data and solve the point assessment
methodology issue for more accurate TPE as well as targeted the most
used segments:
– MSMD staff linked the obtain data points and metadata to DPWES walkway
asset ID’s through the proximity status of each photo.
– MSMD staff made maps showing where the walkway conditions as well as the
proximity to certain community resources, such as schools, VRE/Metro stations,
community centers, and commercial centers.
– Used GIS walkway lengths, widths, and materials to develop costs
– Thus, MSMD staff can prioritize the needed walkway repairs as related to
pedestrian usage.
14

• What about that point assessment issue?
– The process that we used created an integer that represented the calculation of the product
of inverse of contractor severity scores and length. Assessment rankings were recoded to
scale proportionally to damage. Preprocessing was done on walkway points where if a point
was too far away from a valid DPWES walkway then that record data was removed. Further,
if a walkway was given multiple different severity ratings then all of the severity ratings were
combined. The equation used for the ranking was inverse severity rank multiplied by length
where a higher score indicates a greater amount of degradation.
– Equation: 𝑖 ∗ 𝑙 = 𝑠
– 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖 𝑖𝑠 inverse_condition_integer and l is "length_integer" and s is rank
where a higher score is indicative of a worse condition.
15

16

17
DISTRICT GIS/MSMD
WALKWAY
SEGMENT TPE
GIS/MSMD
ONLY PRIORITY
WALKWAYS TPE
2013 WALKWAY ASSESSMENT
STUDY TPE
BRADDOCK $609,741 $95,540 $130,060
DRANESVILLE $2,318, 045 $534,456 $1,610,334
HUNTER MILL $1,079,857 $36,119 $498,115
LEE $1,484,891 $458,274 $1,007,648
MASON $685,046 $189,923 $644,486
MOUNT VERNON $1,006,490 $362,745 $747,382
PROVIDENCE $912,116 $452,206 $782,428
SPRINGFIELD $609,741 $196,004 $318,986
SULLY $1,703,367 $851,900 $943,782
Total $10,409,294 $3,177,167 $6,683,230
WALKWAY SEGMENT VS POINT ASSESSMENT REHAB COSTS
• NOTE: Priority Walkways are walkways that are within/touch the 500 foot buffer of target centers (i.e. Schools, town centers/commercial,
transit, and public)

#5 What would be the ideal budget for maintaining existing County walkways?
• Assessment Study recommendations: Basically catch up immediately on the
backlog of failures ($2.5 million) and then work on then on the deteriorating
($4.2 million). So to sustain the ($220 million) walkway network with $420,000
annually (escalate for inflation) would be about 10-11 years to catch up.
– The Assessment study also stated that the assets last 50-years and 2% of failure
throughout the network (failing and deteriorating percentage is 3.7%); thus, 2% X $220 =
$4.4 million per year for annual maintenance funding.
HOWEVER:
• Considering renewal issues or the point assessment vs the segment walkway
rehab issue for the backlog work of $10.4 million, it about 18 years to catch up.
Again, the fair or deteriorating walks should last another about 8 years.
• Thus, to catch up before the deteriorating segments fail (8 years) would require
a sustained funding (with inflation escalations) around $1.3 million. This
assumes the “Good” walks in the network deteriorate at very slow rate and no
inventory is added.
18

#5 What would be the ideal budget for maintaining existing County walkways?
REALITY CHECKS:
• For the last 5 years, MSMD averaged about 5 miles a year (value is
approximately $330,000/mile) of added walkways and with the $78 million
pedestrian bond initiative. This could be around $100 million in additional
infrastructure to take care of after we catch up with the backlog (about 8-10
years) of failing and deteriorating inventory. Should the maintenance budget
be increased due to this increased inventory?
• Recent History:
– The last two years our budget was $300,000 per year so we had to save for two bridge
repairs that TPE was $460,000 to fix. We also had about dozen bridge issues in last
several years which required stop gap repairs, rehabilitation, or replacement. Thus, we
have done very little trail and sidewalk rehab in last several years because of these two
critical bridge repairs and or other repairs required us to reserve our annual capital
budget for these repairs. Exception is pilot project of precision sidewalk cutting.
– A year ago, we added an Engineer IV to the transportation maintenance program; for the
last six years we had no full time transportation support positions and recently we have
been approved for another transportation maintenance position: Project Manager
19

#6 What can be done to increase trail maintenance funding in the County?
• Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the County Executive
have a hard job:
20

Additional Information
For additional information, please contact
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes
William Schell
21
703-877-2846
bill.schell@fairfaxcounty.gov

Funding and Maintenance Issues for Walkways: March 15, 2016

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