 40% of the money spent on highways pays for pavement. But if that pavement is not maintained, or if it is maintained improperly, it deteriorates at a geometric rate. A typical life-cycle performance curve shows, without maintenance, pavement deteriorates rapidly. With maintenance, pavement life is extended several years. Highway organizations fight this battle of deteriorating pavement every day. They try to make the best use of limited funds, while still providing safe, smooth roads. A pavement management system is the answer. In this program, we will examine a typical pavement management system, its components and products. A pavement management system is a decision support system, a tool to assist managers. With it, they can minimize costs and maximize benefits. Count on consistency and objectivity. Base their planning and budgeting on sound engineering and economic principles. Consider alternatives over longer planning and budgeting cycles. Relate maintenance and rehabilitation actions to costs and performance. Track essential pavement information. And communicate pavement needs to political decision makers. A typical pavement management system includes two major levels of the decision-making process. A network and a project level. Network level decisions concern widespread program and policy issues, covering an entire network of roads. Project level decisions address engineering and technical aspects of pavement management on a project-by-project basis. A good pavement management system will cover both of these decision-making levels. Let's take a look at the different modules that make up a typical pavement management system. Then, see how they apply to the network and project levels. The modules include a database containing information needed to support the other pavement management system modules. Three analysis methods. These methods will generate a variety of products helpful to decision-making. And a feedback process using continual field observations to improve the reliability of pavement management system analysis. A typical database contains an inventory of roadway features as well as information on pavement condition, construction, maintenance and rehabilitation history, traffic data and cost data. It might also have data on design, materials, accidents by location and geometries. The database supports the other modules, but it can also generate various reports. Among them, deficiency reports identify pavement with cracking, rutting, excessive roughness and other problems. Performance history reports relate pavement distress to pavement age and use. And maintenance rehabilitation and reconstruction program reports list planned actions. Both in-house and external agencies find this report helpful. The database also lists maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction actions, and it will generate pavement inventories. There are three methods used to analyze pavement performances and cost data. Pavement condition analysis, priority assessment models and network optimization models. The first is pavement condition analysis. This method uses a numerical index to rank pavement condition. For instance, zero could mean the poorest pavement and 100 mean the best. Managers use this analysis method to rank pavement areas by types of distress and condition as a function of traffic or road class. They can identify criteria for ordering repairs to each pavement segment. And they can estimate funding needs for each kind of repair. The second analysis method is called a priority assessment model. This method determines repair strategies for individual projects first. It bases the strategies on life cycle costs over a period of time, such as 20 to 30 years. Using this method, managers can rank projects, categorize costs for treatments, estimate the funding needed to achieve network performance standards, and devise single and multi-year programs. The third analysis method is the optimization model. This model starts with analysis of the entire network first, trying to meet budget constraints. Feedback is essential to the system. There are four common comparisons managers use to both verify and improve the system's reliability. They compare the actual costs of maintenance, rehabilitation and construction with those used in the system analysis. They compare field observations of pavement and traffic conditions with the conditions predicted by the system's model. They compare actual performance achieved with the performance standard specified in the system analysis. And they compare the actual treatments applied with the treatments recommended by the system. At first, managers may not have historical performance data necessary to calibrate the model. Instead, they will have to use their engineering judgment. With time, however, pavement condition results will provide the further calibration data. Now let's see how a pavement management system works at the network and the project level. Network level managers must first evaluate the overall road network condition. Then they allocate budgets for repairs. In order to evaluate the network, they place each area of pavement into different categories, such as very good, good, fair and poor. The total amount of pavement that falls into each category tends to indicate the overall health of the network. With this information, managers also identify important trends. For instance, is the amount of pavement in the poor category constant, increasing or decreasing? After evaluation, managers formulate maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction policy. They use one of four decision-making methods, the matrix, decision tree, costing analysis and optimization methods. The matrix method matches a set of specific pavement problems with a set of maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction treatments. Engineering judgment acquired through experience is used to decide which treatment to use. The second method, a decision tree, shows different combinations of pavement problems coupled with the appropriate treatments. Again, using experience, engineers select the appropriate treatment for each combination. Third is life-cycle costing analysis. Using this method, managers choose treatments based on which will cost the least over the life of the pavement. The fourth method, optimization, focuses on a specific goal, such as an increase in pavement performance standards. For this method, engineers decide on what's called an objective function. It may be maximization of use benefits or maximization of performance standards. The objective function provides a clear measure of success. They also consider decision variables and constraints, such as the total available budget. After choosing one of these policy methods, network-level personnel assign priorities to various pavement areas. There are four ways to assign priorities. The matrix method simply assigns the highest priority to the pavement in the worst condition in the heaviest traffic. The condition index rates various pavement areas on a scale such as zero for the worst to 100 for the best. This method also tends to give pavements in the worst shape the highest priority. The third method is the benefit-cost ratio procedure. This method seeks to gain the most benefits while spending the lowest amount of money possible. In doing so, it may assign the highest priority to pavements in fair to poor condition. The fourth method is the cost-effectiveness procedure. It is designed to maximize performance while reducing cost. Because of the way performance can be defined, this method may not assign the highest priority to the worst roads. Once the priorities are clear, network-level managers can create budgets for one or more years. The other decision-making level of a pavement management system is the project level. Project-level personnel carry out the various policies established at the network level. Project-level engineers prepare plans and specifications for individual projects. They gather detailed site-specific information pertinent to non-destructive tests. They check material properties representative of on-site materials, and they investigate drainage. Then, based on their own project-level pavement management system procedures, these engineers make their recommendations. There's no doubt, especially for a large network, a computer is essential. A computerized PMS will provide a wide variety of reports, such as the condition of pavement by segments, historical costs of actions by segment by year, summary of traffic by route and location and more. With properly run pavement management systems, highway agencies see a multitude of benefits, like funds allocated fairly on the basis of procedures and priorities, the ability to evaluate the consequences of deferred maintenance, or the ability to answer just about any what-if question, and easy access to information from a desktop computer. No special requests, no waiting time. In this program, we have described a pavement management system. It is a decision support system, a tool to assist managers. With it, they can minimize costs and maximize benefits. Count on consistency and objectivity in pavement management. Based their planning and budgeting on sound engineering and economic principles. Consider alternatives over longer planning and budgeting cycles. Relate maintenance and rehabilitation actions to costs and performance. Track essential pavement information. And communicate pavement needs to political decision makers. A typical pavement management system includes two major levels of the decision making process. A network and a project level. The modules include a database containing information needed to support the other pavement management system modules. Three analysis methods. These methods will generate a variety of products helpful to decision making. And a feedback process using continual field observations to improve the reliability of pavement management system analysis. There are three methods used to analyze pavement performances and cost data. Pavement condition analysis, priority assessment models, and network optimization models. There are four common comparisons managers use to both verify and improve the system's reliability. They compare the actual costs of maintenance, rehabilitation, and construction with those used in the system analysis. They compare field observations of pavement and traffic conditions with the conditions predicted by the system's model. They compare actual performance achieved with the performance standard specified in the system analysis. And they compare the actual treatments applied with the treatments recommended by the system. A typical pavement management system works at the network and the project level. Network level managers must first evaluate the overall road network condition. Then they allocate budgets for repairs. After evaluation, managers formulate maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction policy. They use one of four decision making methods. The matrix, decision tree, costing analysis, and optimization methods. The matrix method matches a set of specific pavement problems with a set of maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction treatments. The second method, a decision tree, shows different combinations of pavement problems coupled with the appropriate treatments. Third is life cycle costing analysis. Using this method, managers choose treatments based on which will cost the least over the life of the pavement. The fourth method, optimization, focuses on a specific goal such as an increase in pavement performance standards. After choosing one of these policy methods, network level personnel assign priorities to various pavement areas. There are four ways to assign priorities. The matrix method simply assigns the highest priority to the pavement in the worst condition in the heaviest traffic. The condition index rates various pavement areas on a scale such as zero for the worst to 100 for the best. The third method is the benefit cost ratio procedure. This method seeks to gain the most benefits while spending the lowest amount of money possible. The fourth method is the cost effectiveness procedure. It is designed to maximize performance while reducing cost. Once the priorities are clear, network level managers can create budgets for one or more years. The other decision making level of a pavement management system is the project level. Project level engineers prepare plans and specifications for individual projects. They gather detailed site specific information pertinent to non-destructive tests. Then, based on their own project level pavement management system procedures, these engineers make their recommendations. With properly run pavement management systems, highway agencies see a multitude of benefits. Like funds allocated fairly on the basis of procedures and priorities. The ability to evaluate the consequences of deferred maintenance. Or the ability to answer just about any what if question. And easy access to information from a desktop computer. No special requests, no waiting time. 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