2009-02-AU Limited Scope Performance Audit of the Highway Fund

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Chapter 4: CHALLENGES FACING THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS The Traffic Division Chief reported that GPS coordinates would be a useful tool by making the recordation, analyses, and reporting of crash data significantly more efficient, while also aiding in the development and maintenance of a traffic sign inventory and management system to comply with federal mandates. These federal mandates include a retroreflectivity assessment of all traffic signs by 2012; replacement of substandard traffic signs by 2015; and replacement of substandard street name signs by 2018. Similarly, use of GPS coordinates by the Traffic Division would be useful in developing and maintaining traffic signal, pavement marking, and streetlight inventories. In consulting with a County Data Systems GIS analyst, the audit team was advised that a basic GPS unit currently costs approximately $100. Since GPS units are supplied to the County Fire Department's Emergency Medical Services (EMS) unit, they would serve as practical tools for other first responders such as other Fire Department units, the Police, Civil Defense, and DPW Traffic and Highway Maintenance Divisions. The utilization of GPS coordinates may also facilitate the compilation by HDOT of more timely crash reports on State intersections; assist the Hawaii County Police Department in recording exact crash locations in accident reports; and provide the County with the ability to gather, analyze, report, and use relevant and timely crash data for all County roads by all appropriate County divisions, departments, and agencies in the planning and budgeting processes. Receipt of more current crash reports and maps would permit the Traffic Division to resolve safety issues in a more timely manner since effective low -cost improvements (such as zigzag awareness striping or four -way stop signs) can be installed relatively quickly, and would assist the County in its efforts to coordinate with the State on resolving safety issues at State /County intersections. FINDING: While the data needed to determine the actual cost to Hawaii County motorists related to County road conditions is unavailable, Insufficient data The Road Information Program (TRIP) estimated that driving on to determine roads in need of repair costs Hawaii State motorists $312 million, or $395 per driver, annually in extra vehicle operating costs, vehicle operating including accelerated vehicle depreciation, additional repair cost, and increased fuel consumption and tire wear. Based on 122,087 costs related to licensed drivers in Hawaii County reported in 2006 by the Hawaii CountCountroad County Data Book, the estimated cost to Hawaii County drivers for y driving on Hawaii Island roads in need of repair would be conditions. $48,224,365 per year (122,087 motorists multiplied by $395 per motorist). This cost estimate combined with National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) studies, which show that one dollar spent on preventative maintenance at the appropriate time in IN