Effect of Selecting Different Rehabilitation Alternatives and Timing on Network Performance

Several different methods of pavement network rehabilitation management are compared. These methods range from random selection, to worst first ranking, to different methods of optimization. The results of applying each method on a sample highway network show for the first time, greatly different benefits and overall performance for the same budget expenditure. Optimization methods provided the best network performance over other methods, however, different optimization methods provided comparable results. The needs method provides a reasonable estimate of pavement rehabilitation needs when the network budget is unlimited. Incremental benefit-cost ratio algorithm is found to be a very efficient and practical algorithm for use in pavement management system (PMS). An objective benefit function is also recommended for use in the network-level PMS.