Life-cycle evaluation of flexible pavement preventive maintenance

This study investigates the cost effectiveness of various levels of life-cycle preventive maintenance (PM) for three asphaltic concrete pavement functional class families. For each family, the effectiveness and cost associated with each of several alternative life-cycle PM strategies were estimated. For each strategy, effectiveness was estimated as the increase in service life relative to a base-case strategy, and the cost was estimated in terms of agency and user costs associated with the treatments comprising that strategy. Using the estimated costs and effectiveness, statistical models were developed to describe the relationship between life-cycle PM effort and its efficacy in extending the pavement life, per unit cost. It is shown that increasing PM is generally associated with increasing cost effectiveness (but only up to a certain turning point beyond which cost effectiveness decreases). It was determined that the maximum cost effectiveness and the corresponding level of annualized PM are influenced by the pavement functional class and cost components considered. A general methodology is hereby provided for pavement managers to estimate the expected changes in pavement service life arising from changes in PM expenditure.