DEVELOPMENT OF A PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE ALGORITHM FOR USE IN PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

A primary objective of Pavement Management Systems is to maintain pavements in good condition at the lowest possible cost. Preventive maintenance treatments play an important role in prolonging service life by slowing down pavement deterioration. This paper documents the development of a preventive maintenance algorithm and introduces a new concept in determining distress density limits for the recommendation of preventive maintenance treatments. A literature search was performed in order to evaluate preventive maintenance algorithms currently in use. Common to existing preventive maintenance algorithms is the use of the subjective judgment of pavement engineers to determine distress density ranges. The procedure described in this paper, which was developed at the United States Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, relates distress density directly to the Pavement Condition Index used in the PAVER Pavement Management System. The concepts presented in this paper can be used by any agency to fully develop a preventive maintenance algorithm. The procedure described can be applied to both asphalt concrete and portland cement concrete pavements, and is flexible enough to allow for local policies and economic factors. The initial algorithm may be expanded to include environmental or geographic factors and additional preventive maintenance treatments at a later date.