Highway Maintenance and Pavement Preservation Strategies in Canada

Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) has been one of the pioneering agencies that use Pavement Management System (PMS) analysis tools in the implementation of annual pavement maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) programming and investment planning at the network level. Currently, the MTO is in the process of upgrading its PMS by integrating pavement preservation (PP) strategies into the long-term pavement rehabilitation program. In this program, a practical PP model being developed through a set of decision trees that ensure the most cost-effective preservation treatments are selected for each pavement section. A number of factors and engineering standards are considered in the process of selecting individual PP strategies, including road functional class, traffic volume, pavement type and age, road condition, and constructability. The preservation program is developed through budget optimization process that determines the most cost-effective PP strategy for every pavement segments.