PaveM-Tools: Pavement Management Tools

H-Chart Instructions

This page discusses the various controls in the User Interface (UI) and how to use them. The H-Chart tool is fairly straight-forward to use: select a County-Route-Direction and push Generate. Please see H-Chart FAQs for a list of frequently asked questions.

The web application generates one or more Excel files with project history and PaveM recommended future project information displayed in a horizontal bar graph, along with other pavement data such as IRI and surface type. If your route selections directs the tool to generate a single Excel file, then the browser will download the file and Excel should start. If your route selection results in more than one Excel file being generated, e.g., if you selected “Both” for Direction, then the two files will be put into a zip file and that file will be downloaded. Your browser should be able to open up the zip file and then you can view the various Excel files. You can also save the Excel file or the zip file locally on your computer.

The “Scenario Selection” dropdown control is at the top of the page and is used to select a specific scenario (sometimes called a “work plan”) to be used as part of the H-Chart generation. Recall that the H-Chart displays past, current and PaveM

Scenario Selection

recommended projects: the recommended projects are based on a specific scenario. The default Scenario is the “Approved” State-Wide Scenario. If additional scenarios are available then they will also be available for selection. The Office of Pavements manages the generation of scenarios. Please contact Pavements if you would like to use a District-specific scenario in the generation of the H-Charts.

The next set of controls allows you select the specific County-Route-Direction set for the H-Chart generation. The set shown below will result in a single Excel file being generated for DN-101-N and subsequently downloaded to your local computer.

Route Selection

You may select “Both” for Direction and then H-Chart files will be generated for both directions. In addition, you may select “ALL” for Route, resulting in all routes (and both directions) being generated for the selected county. Finally, you may select “ALL” for County, resulting in all counties, all routes and both directions being generated for the selected district. (There isn’t an “ALL” option for District.) The H-Chart generation usually happens relatively quickly, even for multiple Excel files. For example, it takes around 10 seconds for all counties, all routes and both directions for District 1.

The third set of controls allows you select how much information is part of the label for each project shown in the H-Chart. The treatment type is always part of the label (e.g., “MedOvr”) and by default, the Lane Number (or “All” if the project work

Route Selection
Project Labels

applies to all lanes) is selected. This combination of label items is shown in the right-top image. The "All" in the label indicates that this project applied to all lanes. If the project was for less than all lanes, the label would show "L1", "L2", etc. The second image down shows including the Budget Group (CAPM), the third image shows including EA (01-0B080) and the fourth including Post-Miles (R4.400/9.400). The format for the post-mile part of the label is: "Beg-PM / End-PM"; post-miles are fully annotated with prefix and suffix labels, if appropriate.

As can be seen, including addition items in the project label can result in the text going beyond the limits of the project length if the length of the project is short. If the project length is long enough then the label should fit nicely into the project limits.

The final UI control on the H-Chart tool page is the Generate H-Chart button. Clicking this button will result in the generation of one or more Excel files that can be viewed, either directly by Excel installed on the local computer or after opening up the generated zip file and then by Excel.

Route Selection

The message box, shown below with a yellow border, is used to display information. The usual information displayed is done after the Generate H-Chart button is clicked and shows the number of Excel files that were generated. Recall if one of the multi-file generation options is selected in the route selection dropdowns, e.g., “Both” or “ALL”, then the generated Excel files are zipped-up into a single file and that zip file gets downloaded to the local computer. The message shown below indicates that 8 Excel files were generated.

Route Selection

Note:

Remember the generated Excel files and downloaded to the local computer are actual Excel files (*.xlsx). Therefore, they can be edited. A primary design goal for the H-Chart web-application was to minimize or eliminate completely the need for any manual modifications to the generated Excel files. However, there may be cases in which you need to modify a file or files for some reason.

If you do find a need for making changes to the generated Excel file, remember that the next time you generate the same file you will need to make the same edits.


PCR (Pavement Condition Report) Instructions

This section discusses the various controls in the PCR tool’s user interface and how to use them. The PCR tool generates an Excel file with a tab summarizing yearly PaveM and MAP-21 pavement condition color-coded lane-miles for the selected year range. The default range of years is all years available from the data exported out of PaveM, but the user can select a subset of those years, if desired, using the controls on the PCR page. The PCR tool also generates a Detailed Report containing pavement conditions, e.g., 1st and 3rd stage cracking percents, with each year placed on its own separate tab.

The PCR generated Excel file can be opened and/or downloaded to your local computer and it is an actual Excel file (*.xlsx). Therefore, it can be edited. The tool was designed to generate print-ready Excel files. If you modify a generated Excel file, then the next time you generate the same file, you will need to make the same edits.

The "Route Selection" set of controls allows you select the specific District-County-Route set for the PCR generation.

Route Selection

The reports generated by PCR tool is specific to a route in a county and therefore there isn't an "ALL" option as in the other tools available in this PaveM resutls viewer website. Please select the desired county and route.



By default, the PCR tool uses all available years and considers the entire length of a route in a couty. You may change these defaults by using the controls in the "Project Filter Selections" set of controls.

The default earliest available year ("From Year") is referred to as the "Current" year in the PCR. The Current year is associated with the current APCS data collection year. For example, if the year shown in the "From Year" field is 2015, then APCS data was collected in 2015. The default latest year ("To Year") is based on how the data for the PCR was exported out of PaveM.

Project Selection

Typically, 10 to 15 years of data gets exported from PaveM for use in the PCR. Pavement condition data, for years into the future past the Current year, are "Predicted" by PaveM.

Please contact Zhongren Wang at the Office of Pavement Management if you have any questions on the exporting of data from PaveM or how PaveM predicts pavement conditions into the future or have any other questions/suggestions related to the PCR tool.

You may also restrict the amount of route data that is included in the generated PCR. By default, data for the entire route in a county is included in the report. You use the "From PM" and "To PM" fields to select a subset of the default length of a route. The postmile values entered into these two fields must be valid, fully qualified PMs. A fully qualified PM contains valid PM prefix, value and suffix for the route.

The PCR tool assists you when making PM selections in that it tries to look for a valid, fully qualified PM using the entered PM if the entered value is not valid. For example, if you entered "0.000" for a PM and that value is not valid, but "M0.000" is a valid PM, it replaces your "0.000" with "M0.000" and alerts to this fact in the yellow bordered message box at the bottom of the page and asks you to confirm that this is what you had intended to enter. If you have any questions on valid PMs, please use the Caltrans GIS Services' Postmile Query Tool to verify your PMs.

The two readonly fields in the "Project Filter Selections" set of controls, "From Odm" and "To Odm", are computed county-based Odometer values from the "From PM" and "To PM" values. The PCR tool uses the Highway Log, which contains the mapping between PM and State Odometer to translate a PM to a county-based Odometer.

Any messages generated by the PCR tool will be shown in the yellow-bordered area shown below. The sample message below is telling you that an entered PM was invalid but that it was able to find a valid PM using the entered PM. You need to verify that the suggested PM is appropriate for your needs.

Message Box

Generate a PCR by selecting the "Generate" button. The generation of a PCR takes a bit of time so be patient. When the report has been generated your browser will inform you that a file is ready for opening and/or downloading, depending on which browser you are using.