Flexible pavement maintenance programming considering the minimisation of maintenance and rehabilitation costs and the maximisation of the residual value of pavements

Abstract

This article presents the development and implementation of a multi-objective decision-aid tool (MODAT) which considers different possible goals: minimisation of agency costs; minimisation of user costs; maximisation of the residual value of pavements, etc. The MODAT 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. The knee point, which represents the most interesting solution of the Pareto frontier, corresponds to an agency cost weight value of 81% and a weight value of 19% for the residual value of pavements, demonstrating that agency costs, because they are generally much greater than residual value of pavements, dominate the decision process.

Keywords::

• pavement management
• multi-objective optimisation
• maintenance
• rehabilitation
• residual value of pavements
• life-cycle costs

Acknowledgements

The authors also wish to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Additional information

Funding

This research work was developed as part of the project MODAT for Highway Asset Management [grant number PTDC/ECM/112775/2009], co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors (COMPETE) and by national funds through the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation. This research work was also funded by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation [grant number SFRH/BD/49923/2009].