Development of integrated asset management model for highway facilities based on risk evaluation

Highways are vital infrastructures that play a crucial role in providing social welfare. Highway structures could experience different types of deterioration (e.g. pavement ageing, pavement cracking, potholes, bridge structure deteriorations, and rockfall due to unstable slopes). Minimal attention has been directed towards developing a comprehensive model to effectively reduce the potential hazards for the entire highway network while considering the associated individual and overall risks. An integrated risk management model is used to separately assess each section's risk value and the extent of its impact on the network. An efficient model has been developed to identify the highway sections that its maintenance will effectively reduce the total risk within the highway network. The developed model competence is examined and verified after evaluating a four major highway network in Florida. The results of the highway's analysis were compared for all routes within the network. Also, the developed model's proficiency in optimally reducing the network's overall risk is presented. The proposed model could be utilized as a support-decision tool to decide which highway segments must be maintained to minimize the network's potential risk.