Work is getting underway for this year’s street repair and maintenance projects in Knoxville; and the decision on which streets to repair each year comes with an assist from a computer program.

The city is currently following a ten-year plan for road improvements, and each year choices have to be made on which streets will get priority and which will have to wait.

Knoxville City Manager Aaron Adams tells KNIA/KRLS News their decisions are guided by this program, which has streets rated from 0 to 100…with 100 being the best possible condition.

“Based on those ratings, they’re all plugged into a complicated computer software that our engineer uses, and we’re able to prioritize those streets. And so it not only takes into account that score of what quality of the road, the shape of the road; but it also takes into account traffic counts, difficulty of repair,” Adams says.

“And you’re actually able to feed into it a formula of how much money you would like to invest in your infrastructure in coming years.”

Adams says the city sells $1.5 million in bonds every other year, and dedicates half of this amount, or $750,000 to the street projects each year. This can be supplemented by federal or state funds which become available to Knoxville.

And while the computer results are generally followed by the city, adjustments can and have been made whenever the situation changes.