Pavement maintenance programming considering two objectives: maintenance costs and user costs

Abstract

This paper presents the development and implementation of a Multi-Objective Decision-Aid Tool (MODAT) tested with data from the Estradas de Portugal's Pavement Management System. The MODAT uses a multi-objective deterministic section-linked optimisation model with different possible goals: minimisation of agency costs, minimisation of user costs, maximisation of the residual value of pavements, etc. The MODAT also uses the deterministic pavement performance model used in the AASHTO flexible pavement design method. The application of the new Decision-Aid Tool is illustrated with a case study involving the main road network of Castelo Branco, a district of Portugal. In this application, the Knee point, that represents the most interesting solution of the Pareto frontier, corresponds to an agency costs weight value of 4% and an user costs weight value of 96%, demonstrating that user costs, which are generally much higher than agency costs, dominate the decision process.

Keywords:

• pavement management
• life-cycle costs
• maintenance
• rehabilitation
• multi-objective optimisation

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology for the financial support provided to this study through Grant PTDC/ECM/112775/2009 – MODAT – Multi-Objective Decision-Aid Tool for Highway Asset Management, financed by the European Community Fund FEDER. The authors wish to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Notes

^1. [email protected].

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susana Meneses

1 1. [email protected].