Case Study: City of Topeka achieves targeted PCI and cuts end-of-life roads to 4.7% on a $24M budget with Brightly Software

Topeka, KS Closes Pavement Funding Gap with Capital Predictor

The City of Topeka, Kansas Public Works team faced a funding and performance challenge when a 0.5-cent retail sales tax used for pavement renewal was up for re-evaluation. They were tasked with proving the funding needed to raise average Pavement Condition Index (PCI) from 55 to 60 over 10 years and showing what an increased $31M annual budget would achieve.

Using Brightly Predictor and existing pavement and work-order data (no new data collection), the city modeled funding and treatment scenarios and found that, with improved treatment strategies, the current $24M annual budget could surpass the PCI goal and cut roads at End of Life from about 10% to 4.7%. The analysis — delivered in eight weeks — also showed that raising the budget to $31M would yield only a modest 3-point PCI gain, and the team produced an Esri Story Map to communicate results to council and the public.

City of Topeka

Jason Peek

Director of Public Works