Pavement-management system for Oliveira do Hospital, Portugal

This paper presents a geographical-information-system (GIS)-based pavement-management system for Oliveira do Hospital in Portugal. The pavement-management system includes the following components: a road network database, a quality evaluation too, a costs model, a pavement performance model and a decision-aid tool. The quality of road pavements is evaluated by the present serviceability index (PSI), representing the condition of the pavement as a function of the following parameters: longitudinal roughness, rutting, cracking, surface disintegration and patching. This pavement quality index is computed by using a modified version of the American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) PSI equation. The decision-aid tool uses a deterministic segment-linked optimisation model with the objective of minimisation of the total expected discounted costs over the planning time-span while keeping the road pavements within given quality standards. The decision-aid tool also uses the deterministic pavement-performance model used in the AASHTO flexible pavement-design method that allows the gap between project and network management to be closed. Recent international pavement-management conferences have concluded that this is one of the most important problems to be solved. The information produced by the system is shown in maps using a GIS.