WithersRavenel, IMS team up on pavement management

WithersRavenel and IMS Infrastructure Management Services are partnering to offer full-service pavement management across the continental U.S. The deal combines field data collection and lifecycle planning so governments can turn pavement condition data into maintenance, funding and long-term investment decisions.

Why it matters: - Federal, state and local agencies can now get a more complete pavement management workflow from field surveys through long-term planning. - The partnership is aimed at helping governments turn pavement condition data into maintenance strategies, capital plans and investment decisions. - The firms say the model supports a shift from reactive repairs to proactive, data-driven asset management.

What happened: - WithersRavenel and IMS Infrastructure Management Services announced a partnership on July 7, 2026, in Cary, North Carolina. - The agreement covers full-service pavement management solutions across the continental United States. - The two firms are combining IMS' pavement condition surveys, sidewalk condition surveys and pavement structural testing with WithersRavenel's infrastructure asset management, lifecycle planning and pavement management services.

The details: - IMS provides detailed distress data, 3D condition data and subsurface structural insights to help agencies assess network conditions safely and efficiently. - WithersRavenel adds lifecycle planning, scenario analysis, GIS integration, funding strategy and implementation support. - The partnership is designed to help clients collect decision-ready pavement data and convert it into practical maintenance recommendations and long-term investment plans. - WithersRavenel says it has more than 119 Lifecycle Modeling clients across the U.S. - WithersRavenel says its pavement management program has surveyed and rated more than 30,000 centerline miles of municipal roads in the Southeast. - The firm's services include pavement condition surveys, Pavement Condition Index evaluations, maintenance and repair recommendations, cost estimates, capital improvement planning and pavement management system implementation. - IMS says it supports municipalities, counties, MPOs and state transportation agencies with pavement data collection, condition rating and asset management data delivery across North America. - IMS says it completes about 200 pavement management projects each year and keeps the process in-house from hardware and software development through QA/QC review and final deliverables. - WithersRavenel was founded in 1983 in Cary and has 470+ employee-owners working from its Cary headquarters and North Carolina branch offices. - IMS was founded in 1975 and has more than 50 years of experience in infrastructure management services.

Between the lines: - The partnership reflects a broader push to connect pavement data with funding and service-level decisions, not just condition reporting. - For agencies with limited budgets, the ability to compare funding scenarios and tradeoffs could make the planning side as important as the field data. - The collaboration also suggests demand for vendors that can cover both data collection and lifecycle modeling without handing off work between multiple firms.

What's next: - The firms will pursue projects for government clients needing pavement data, lifecycle analysis and implementation support. - The partnership is positioned to help communities communicate the long-term impact of infrastructure spending and set priorities around available resources. - More information is available in WithersRavenel's announcement.