OCA Audit Reports

Issued: November 2008

Street quality remains below the stated goal because funding issues and a backlog of work have prevented Street and Bridge from meeting intermediate goals. Street and Bridge’s performance goal is for eighty percent of City streets to be rated satisfactory as determined by an independent, objective assessment. At the current funding level, Street and Bridge has projected that they will reach their performance goal of having eighty percent of streets in satisfactory condition in 2016. Street and Bridge was unable to meet its intermediate goals for repair and maintenance in 2003-2007 in part due to a lack of available funding. There is a significant backlog of streets requiring maintenance which also affects the division’s ability to meet the goal.

In addition, the public perception of Austin’s street condition is relatively low. While the public has a generally poor opinion of the quality of Austin roadways, there is a system in place to determine customer satisfaction that is being used to make changes in operations.

Street and Bridge has incorporated best practices and information technology in the planning and measurement process, but improvements can be made in the management information system that contains planning and performance data. Street and Bridge regularly compares its practices to determine if they are in line with best practices. Their annual service plan is developed to maximize road quality with limited resources. The performance measures used by Street and Bridge are relevant for judging performance and making planning decisions.

Management creates performance measurement reports and uses the information in the decision making process. Furthermore, the overall performance management system contains measures that are reliable and adequately controlled. However, the Pavement Management Information System (PMIS) has not had new data uploaded about street conditions since 2005. Also, not all users of the PMIS have an adequate understanding of the system. Information on maintenance and repair backlogs are maintained in a separate database that is not incorporated into the PMIS.

Street and Bridge is vulnerable to changes in market conditions for their supply of critical materials. Despite increased volatility in the materials market, Public Works has not adjusted its procedures, leaving it vulnerable to sharp and unexpected cost increases. In addition, Street and Bridge has not developed contingency plans for dealing with interruptions in the supply of critical materials.

Street and Bridge has not formalized and updated some procedures to align them with business practices. For instance, they do not perform the independent quality control process described in their policy manual. Also, there are no formal procedures for compiling and calculating performance measures, environmental controls for street repair field crews are not formalized and distinct, and work log documentation lacks completeness and standardization.

Download the entire text of our Street Repair and Preventive Maintenance (Size: 280 KB) in Adobe Acrobat. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these files. Or request a hard copy of this audit report, No. AU08112, by submitting this audit report request form.

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