SURVEY DATA HELPS PLAN MAINTENANCE YARDS

A recently concluded nation-wide maintenance yard survey could provide state departments of transportation with useful data to help them meet their commitments to provide the public with quality transportation facilities. The survey, conducted over a 6-month period, queried state DOTs to determine how they staff and locate maintenance yards in relation to the roads they maintain. The survey grew from a California Department of Transportation Maintenance Station Location Model, which evaluated the location of maintenance stations. The MSLM model's primary purpose is to provide Caltrans district staff with the information needed to evaluate the suitability of maintenance yard locations, in order to provide a framework for determining whether to add new maintenance stations and/or relocate, consolidate, renovate, or close existing stations. The project surveyed 40 state DOTs.