A special truck is driving the streets of Dunwoody, checking the condition of the pavement as it goes. The machine looks for cracks, roughness and ruts and takes photos as it rolls along.
“Talking to the guys that drive it, they say some people mistake them for the Google truck,” said city Public Works Director Michael Smith.
After the truck, called a Road Surface Tester, completes its route this month, the information it has gathered will be used to help determine city paving priorities. Within a couple of months, the city will update its paving plans to reflect the new data and give each street a numerical grade, from 1 to 100, to reflect its condition. That way, the city can move to repair the worst roads first.
“We don’t have any zeros, or hundreds,” Smith said. “Most of our roads are in the 50 to 80 range.”
