COMBINED COST OF HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE AND TRAFFIC OPERATIONS

In recent years, various highway agencies and researchers have worked to develop efficient methods for maintenance planning. Pavement Management Systems (PMS) and Maintenance Management Systems (MMS) have been implemented with limited effectiveness. A major reason is that PMS and MMS usually neglect effects on user costs, which can greatly exceed the maintenance costs. Furthermore, through our comprehensive literature review and questionnaire survey, it is found that the concept of combined cost for highwaay maintenance and traffic operation is relatively unfamiliar. Hence, the development of improved maintenance planning methods should proceed as an urgent task. Recognizing the existing deficiencies, a realistic and efficient maintenance planning methodology is proposed in this report. This methodology may be fully developed in the next phase of this project. The first part of the proposed project will evaluate various economic and safety factors, and analyze the technical trade-offs between different maintenance strategies. A quantitative optimization model will then be developed for determining the best maintenance plan.