Welcome to Module 1 of the Michigan Local Agency Pavement Warranty
Program workshop for local decision makers.
This 5-part workshop will help officials from cities, villages, townships, and counties
understand the Michigan Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program
and comply with legislation that created this program.
The workshop is prepared and presented by Michigan’s Local Technical Assistance Program
with support from the State Transportation Innovation Council,
also known as the “STIC” for short.
The Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program advisory panel
provided support, expertise, and direction to help prepare this workshop,
associated guidance, and operational documents.
Module 1 is a 15 minute pre-recorded webinar.
After completing module 1, you will understand what warranties are
in the context of the pavement warranty program.
You will be able to plan for compliance and potential warranty use
and inform others in your agency what steps must be taken to be compliant.
You’ll be able to articulate some of the benefits and
challenges of pavement warranties to your agency and constituents.
And you’ll have a plan for meaningful participation in remaining modules.
You can get more info on these modules,
the Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program,
and Michigan’s LTAP by visiting
MichiganLTAP.org/pavement-warranties
This is module 1 of a 5-module workshop that helps agencies understand
whether to implement pavement warranties under the
new Michigan Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program,
and how to do so if they choose.
Modules 1 - 4 are recorded, independent study modules.
Module 5 is a live, interactive presentation with subject matter experts
online for questions and answers.
As you progress through the modules and have questions, you may e-mail them to
LTAP@mtu.edu for a response during the
module 5 live presentation.
You may also ask your questions in person during module 5.
The Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program was included in the 2015
Michigan transportation bill in order to help the state, local agencies,
and contractors work in a uniform pavement warranty environment.
The Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program rules and guidelines
were developed through work by representatives of large and small
counties and cities, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT),
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA),
industry, and professional associations.
Public Act 175 of 2015, also known as
Michigan Compiled Laws (MCL) 247.662
and 247.663,
requires all local agencies to participate in the Local Agency
Pavement Warranty Program.
Let’s take a look at what’s necessary to comply with the law.
While participation in the Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program is mandatory,
this is not a requirement to use warranties on any projects.
Participation in the program means you are only required to
consider using pavement warranties.
While your agency is not required to use warranties on any projects,
your agency is required to report to the state legislature on certain road construction projects.
To participate in the program your agency shall adopt the
Michigan Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program through a formal resolution
passed by your board.
Your agency should establish policies and guidelines for when it will, and will not,
use warranties, and refer to those policies in your resolution.
The Michigan Local Agency Warranty Program is the only program approved
to meet the requirements of PA175 of 2015.
Your warranty use policies will guide your agency’s choice
to use or not use warranties on projects.
Your policies should also give specific guidance for projects
that meet the warranty consideration threshold of two million dollars in paving items.
While the law requires you to participate in the program,
it is only a legal structure for your contracts.
The state of Michigan does not enforce the warranty terms between you and your contractors,
and your agency is ultimately responsible for all negotiations and warranty claims.
Public Act 175 of 2015 requires agencies
to consider warranties on large projects that have over
two million dollars in paving items.
Paving items include things like the asphalt or concrete used in the pavement,
the gravel base under the pavement, and the work associated with placing those materials.
Demolition, excavation, street signs, and sidewalks
are examples of non-paving items that may be included
in a road paving project, but not count toward the paving item threshold.
The Act requires local agencies to report to the Michigan Legislature
on the warranty status on large projects whether or not the agency
decides to use a warranty.
All warranty reporting is done through the Investment Reporting Tool,
also known as the IRT. Reporting warranties through the IRT
to the Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council
will be part of your agency’s regular annual IRT reporting.
Your reasons for using pavement warranties should align with the policies and
procedures established in your warranty program resolution,
which we will cover in more detail later in this module and in the following modules.
One of the goals of establishing a warranty program was to provide all
agencies and contractors with a common framework for pavement warranties.
The Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program should provide contractors
and owners with a consistent working environment for all pavement warranties
regardless of agency or project size, and may give you more
opportunities to use warranties on any project.
You shall report warranty status in the Investment Reporting Tool
for all projects with more than two million dollars in paving items
and funding from federal or state sources,
and reporting warranty status for all other projects,
while not required by law,
will help assess warranty program outcomes.
The same exceptions apply to both small and large projects:
If your project funds come only from local millages, special assessments,
donations, or other local sources,
and no federal or state funds are used to fund the project,
then you do not have to consider using a warranty,
Now that we have covered the reasons for the Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program
and the requirements for meeting legislative mandates,
we shall talk more about what warranties are and why you may or may not want
to use pavement warranties on your projects.
Here are important concepts regarding warranties:
Pavement warranties have been widely used in Michigan and beyond for many years.
Warranties provide for recourse when warrantied materials or work are defective.
Defects are not the same as failures due to normal use or damage.
A defect must be due to reasons within the contractor's control.
For example, defects caused by failing to follow proper procedures
for placing the specified materials
may be covered by the warranty program.
Warranties require specific administrative and technical steps
throughout project planning, contracting, implementation, and monitoring,
but these steps do not replace existing inspection and quality assurance
or quality control activities.
Warranties can help manage constituent expectations.
They are available to all agencies regardless of project or agency size,
and even though warranties have many benefits,
they are not for everyone or every project.
Agencies that are not familiar with pavement warranties
may not have considered them previously,
or they may have passed up the opportunity to use warranties on their pavements
because they did not feel like they could develop and manage a program on their own.
Michigan’s Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program can help overcome some of
the reasons that agencies have for not using warranties,
and may open up opportunities for improving constituent satisfaction
and managing costs.
Some of the benefits of warranties include:
Warrantied materials and work
are defined in the program and can lead to prompt correction of defects.
The Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program establishes a process
of identifying defects and remedies, so agencies do not need to
develop their own processes for many of the warranty steps.
Overall project maintenance costs can be controlled by ensuring that defects are limited.
A warrantied project should have fewer defects, leading to improved
road user experiences such as a smoother ride.
Citizens will see prompt defect correction,
potentially improving overall satisfaction with your agency.
Warranties can provide many benefits, but reasons remain why you might
choose to forego warranties on some projects.
Those reasons will vary by agency, region, and project, and
should be part of your regular project development process.
Don’t forget that you may be required to document your reasons for not using a warranty,
so it’s worthwhile approaching every project with the option
of using a warranty and then carefully weighing and documenting your reasons
for making your choice to use or not use a warranty on each project.
Some of the reasons for not using a warranty include:
You may limit the pool of available and willing contractors and suppliers
because not every contractor may want to offer a warranty.
The initial project cost may be considerably higher than the same project without warranties.
All warranties require additional administrative, technical,
and legal steps throughout the project’s life.
If your agency is not capable or willing to complete inspections
and follow-up documentation, then you may not identify defects.
Only documented defects will be eligible for warranty repairs.
The project design must be warrantable, limiting options for using
experimental or emerging technology, materials, and practices.
To recap, we have covered the basic requirements of the
Michigan Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program,
the required participation in this program,
and the ability your agency has to choose to use
or not use warranties on a project.
Based on the legal requirements, your agency does have to take the following steps
by September 18, 2019:
Your agency must adopt the
Michigan Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program with a resolution.
The resolution should reference the agency’s
policies and processes for using or not using warranties on any project.
You will report pavement warranty activity
on ALL pavement projects over $2 million,
even those without warranties,
using the Investment Reporting Tool (IRT).
The next modules in this series will give you examples of resolutions and
policies for meeting these requirements
and give more details on how to decide whether to use warranties or not.
In this first module, you learned about the Michigan Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program
and what you steps you’ll need to take to comply with legislation that created this program.
You also learned about some of the opportunities and obligations of pavement warranties.
There is much more to know before you can make an informed decision about using pavment warranties.
In the remaining four modules,
you should gain enough knowledge to make a decision about warranty use:
Module 2 will help you understand more program details
and how to make a decision about using warranties.
Modules 2 through 4 will give you more information on what
documents to prepare and how the warranty process works.
In these modules, we will also provide you with templates
for some of the documents that you should prepare.
Module 5 will give you an opportunity to ask questions and get answers
from the pavement warranty advisory panel.
Module 5, a live question and answer session with subject matter experts
from the Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program Advisory Panel
will take place in mid September.
The date will was not finalized at the time of this module’s publication.
You must register for the live session, which will also sign you up for updates
and publication dates for all of the pavement warranty learning modules.
Register at: MichiganLTAP.org/pavement-warranties
E-mail or call if you have questions about the Local Agency Pavement Warranty Program
or anything that LTAP does.
Remember that your questions will be answered in a live session during module 5,
and you may submit them at any time before or during that session.
You must register to participate in the live session.
The live session will be recorded for later review.
Following this 5-part series for elected and appointed officials,
Michigan’s LTAP will present a multi-part workshop
with technical information for engineers and inspectors.
The publication schedule of the technical series
was not prepared at the time of this module’s release.
All future modules will be announced at:
MichiganLTAP.org/pavement-warranties
Michigan LTAP’s email address is LTAP@MTU.EDU
The phone number is 906-487-2102.
Thank you for your attention and participation and we look forward to serving you
for all your local road information and technical assistance needs.