Brownwood to Rate Every City Street This Fall: What the New PASER System Could Change

Brownwood is preparing to introduce a citywide street-rating system that officials say will bring more structure and objective information to decisions about road repairs. The City of Brownwood will use the PASER Rating Method during the 2026-27 fiscal year to help determine the order in which streets are repaired.

The City’s Street Department is scheduled to begin implementing the pavement-assessment system this fall. PASER, short for pavement assessment and management, relies on visual inspections of pavement surfaces. Each street will receive a score from 1 to 10, with 1 representing the worst condition and 10 representing the best.

The results will be added to Brownwood’s existing geographic information system, or GIS. That will allow the city to create a visual representation of its streets and compare conditions across the municipal road network.

How Brownwood plans to use the ratings

The rating system is intended to give city officials a consistent way to identify repair priorities. Rather than relying only on individual observations, the city will have pavement-condition data that can be reviewed across its entire street system.

Mayor Stephen Haynes said the approach could provide a clearer basis for addressing one of the city’s largest infrastructure challenges.

“I love the idea of the better analysis and objective criteria,” said Mayor Stephen Haynes.

Haynes also described the scale of the problem facing Brownwood, saying the city has a strong interest in improving its roads and infrastructure but must manage a large number of competing needs.

“Trying to get a better handle on our streets and roads is the one area that’s been the most difficult for me to get my arms around. The problem is so massive and the objectives are so overwhelming. I know there’s a desire on behalf of the Council to improve roads and streets and infrastructure.”

Assistant City Manager of Public Works Ryan Ward told the City Council that Brownwood currently maintains approximately 152 centerline miles of streets. A centerline mile measures the length of a roadway rather than the total paved surface area.

Current work, budget and staffing limits

The city reported that 8.3 centerline miles had been completed, or approximately 5% of the streets Brownwood maintains. The work used 81,503 square yards of material, with a street-improvement budget of $300,000.

Haynes said the city had previously increased the amount budgeted for road repairs to between $500,000 and $600,000. However, he said that funding was not being spent effectively, and some of it was eventually shifted to council priority projects, including splash pads and park renovations.

The mayor said the city faces a workforce challenge because it cannot quickly expand its staff for the seasonal demands of road construction. He described road crews as typically working from about May 15 through Oct. 15, with long workweeks during that period, while the city cannot simply hire and equip enough employees to work only part of the year.

“I would love to find a way in next year’s budget to reallocate more funds to street repair, the amount of work is infinite, but how do we solve the workforce issue?”

Ward said larger organizations where he had worked had nearly 50 employees assigned to roads and completed paving and overlays in-house. Brownwood’s smaller staff must divide its time between street projects, work orders and routine maintenance.

He said street projects require the entire available crew, creating a trade-off between larger improvements and daily responsibilities such as pothole repairs and cutting brush away from signs.

Possible approaches for future repairs

Ward told the council that the PASER data could help the city focus resources where they produce the greatest benefit. Streets with a reliable baseline condition may offer better opportunities for cost-effective overlays, which the city currently contracts out because it does not have the necessary equipment.

For residential streets, Ward discussed a possible equipment investment that could allow the city to mill roads, rework the base, rebuild the structure and apply a double chip seal. He said that approach could allow Brownwood to address more roads and make longer-term improvements at a lower cost.

The immediate next step is the start of visual pavement assessments by the Street Department this fall. The resulting scores will be incorporated into the city’s GIS system and used during the 2026-27 fiscal year as Brownwood evaluates the sequence of future street repairs.