How to Make Better Decisions on Addressing Pavement Needs

• Published in: Public Roads Vol. 80; no. 2; p. 30
• Main Authors: Visintine, Beth, Rada, Gonzalo R, Bryce, James M, Thyagarajan, Senthil, Sivaneswaran, Nadarajah
• Format: Magazine Article Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Superintendent of Documents 01.09.2016
• Subjects: Costs; Engineers; Forklift trucks; Government agencies; Maintenance; Optimization techniques; Pavement design; Pavements; Rehabilitation; Repair; Researchers; Roads; Roads & highways; Transportation
• ISSN: 0033-3735; 2169-1800

The public has high expectations of transportation infra- structure. Namely, pavements and bridges should he in good repair and provide consistent, high- quality service. To meet these goals, the State and local departments of transportation charged with managing these assets work to achieve and sustain a desired state of good repair over the life cycle of the assets at minimum practicable cost. Through pavement management systems, DOTs employ a strategic and systematic process that focuses on managing each asset over its life cycle. That process typically involves a structured sequence of maintenance, preservation, rehabilitation, and reconstruction actions. The concept of remaining service interval is based on the idea that a pavements maintenance and rehabilitation requirements cannot be defined by a single value representing the end of its life. Analyses at the project level require more detailed data that include modeling of pavement design and performance specific to the project's location.