2013 Session: 662

• Pavement Management: Capturing Surface Treatment Effectiveness
  Abstract: Acquiring detailed knowledge of surface treatments effectiveness is required to improve performance-based decisions for allocating resources to preserve and maintain pavements on any road network. Measurement of treatment effectiveness is a complex task that requires historical records of treatments with observations of before and after performance trends. Lack of data is often an obstacle that impedes development and incorporation of surface maintenance treatments into pavement management. This paper analyzes the effect of surface treatments on asphalt paved arterial roads for several control sections. The method uses a Transition Probability Matrix to capture main effects mapping mean trends of surface improvement and pavement structure decay. It was found that surface treatments have an immediate effect reducing the rate of loss of structural capacity. Pavements with IRI smaller than 1.4 m/km did not seem to benefit from surface treatments. Those with IRI higher than 1.66 m/km gained from 6 to 8 years of additional life. Reset value for surface treatments fall between 1.18 and 1.29 m/km. This paper aims to serve to practitioners seeking to capture and incorporate effectiveness of surface treatments (i.e., crack-sealing) into Pavement Management.
  Authors: Amador-Jimenez, Luis; Amin, MD Shohel Reza
  Authors: Amador-Jimenez, Luis; Amin, MD Shohel Reza
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Design; Pavements
  Session: 662
  Paper Number: 13-0568
• Clustering of Pavement Stretches and Determining OptimumNumber of Clusters for Pavement Maintenance
  Abstract: When a large number of pavement stretches are to be maintained, the decision making becomes complicated and prioritization of individual stretches is not much useful in taking maintenance management decisions. In such situations grouping or clustering the pavement stretches having similar distress characteristics would be the practical and effective approach. Since a number of distresses are observed on pavements and usually they are being represented in different levels of severity and extent it becomes quite difficult to cluster them. The problem becomes further aggravated as the weights of various distresses also play an important role and it is difficult toexpress them objectively. A methodology has been suggested in this paper on the clustering of pavement stretches and also to find out the optimum number of clusters. The technique has been explained with the help of a case study carried out in a few selected stretches in the state of Rajasthan, India.
  Authors: Sarkar, Ashoke Kumar; Sandra, Amarendra Kumar
  Authors: Sarkar, Ashoke Kumar; Sandra, Amarendra Kumar
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Design; Pavements
  Session: 662
  Paper Number: 13-1475
• Pavement Maintenance Management Through Network Partition
  Abstract: This paper presents a new optimization model to the problem of pavement maintenance planning for a large-scale road network. In the past, this problem has usually been formulated as linear programming or integer programming model. The solutions obtained from those models determine the timing, location and type of treatment to perform the maintenance operation for a given planning horizon. However, a shortcoming of those models is that the selected sections for maintenance are usually distributed spatially across the network, making it difficult to plan and implement maintenance activities in a coordinated manner. In light of the scale of economy, adjacent road sections with similar maintenance needs should be maintained within a single project. Unfortunately, the idea of automatically combining adjacent sections into one large project has not been given serious attention in existing optimization models for pavement maintenance planning. In this paper, a new solution approach to pavement maintenance planning is proposed that utilizes the spatial structure of the road network. The road network is first partitioned into groups of adjacent sections, or maintenance projects, with similar maintenance needs. Then, in order to maximize system performance a Knapsack problem is solved to optimally allocated resources to selected maintenance projects.
  Authors: Gao, Lu; Zhang, Zhanmin
  Authors: Gao, Lu; Zhang, Zhanmin
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Design; Pavements
  Session: 662
  Paper Number: 13-2296
• Optimization and Prioritization Methods for Pavement Network Management
  Abstract: Given the limitations in pavement agencies’ annual budgets, one of the principal modules of a network level Pavement Management System is the economic module, whose goal is to define a network maintenance program that ensures an optimal allocation of resources. Different approaches and methods are found in literature for the resolution of the maintenance program problem, varying in the input needed information, the considered time frame and the process used to select sections, treatments and timings. This paper seeks to assess the existing methods used for the economic evaluation, prioritization and optimization applied to pavement network management and recommend the most suitable methods for different scenarios. Two main approaches (sequential and holistic) and three classes of methods (priority based on ranking and multicriteria analysis, optimization, and near-optimization methods) have been applied for solving the maintenance program problem. Holistic approach, normally solved using optimization or near-optimization methods, tackles the problem considering the overall network condition. Sequential approach is easier to implement and understand, but it may deal to solutions far from optimal because it does not consider the problem as a whole. Scenarios defining the suitability of these approaches are defined. Finally, a hydrid approach based on iterations is purposed. Iterative approach considers the overall condition of the network and is supposed to deal to better solutions than sequential approach being easier to implement and understand than the holistic approach.
  Authors: Torres-Machí, Cristina; Chamorro, Alondra; Videla, Carlos; Pellicer, Eugenio; Yepes, Víctor
  Authors: Torres-Machí, Cristina; Chamorro, Alondra; Videla, Carlos; Pellicer, Eugenio; Yepes, Víctor
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Design; Pavements
  Session: 662
  Paper Number: 13-5057
• Proposed New Performance Indicator: Vehicle Operating Cost Index due to Road Roughness
  Abstract: The New Zealand Ministry of Transport has stated that reducing transportation costs should be a key outcome of the use of the National Land Transport Fund. Road roughness contributes to the cost of transportation through factors such as fuel consumption, repairs and maintenance, and tyre wear. The cost due to roughness may be only a few cents per vehicle kilometre travelled (VKT), but with circa 20 billion VKT on the State Highway network each year the total cost can be significant. Currently the performance of the State Highway network is measured using the International Roughness Index (IRI) and Smooth Travel Exposure (STE); however, neither quantifies the cost due to roughness and neither are suitable surrogates. This paper presents a proposed new performance indicator, the Vehicle Operating Cost Index (VOCi) which returns the average vehicle operating cost due to road roughness per VKT. The VOCi has been applied to the entire New Zealand State Highway network, with results presented for each State Highway functional classification, at both the national and regional levels. Although nationally the magnitude and variability of VOCi reduces with increasing functional classification, as is consistent with appropriate stewardship of the asset taking account of the relative functional importance of the route, the same relationship does not always exist at the regional level. It should be noted, however, that the VOCi, like any other indicator of its kind, is only part of the information available to decision makers and will not negate the need to ‘drill-down’ to determine if there are any underlying reasons behind uncharacteristic values.
  Authors: Costello, Seosamh B.; Bargh, Louis S.; Henning, Theuns F. P.; Hendry, Matt
  Authors: Costello, Seosamh B.; Bargh, Louis S.; Henning, Theuns F. P.; Hendry, Matt
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Design; Pavements
  Session: 662
  Paper Number: 13-1265
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Comparison of Pavement Network Management Tools Based on Linear and Nonlinear Optimization Methods
  Abstract: Transportation officials at the state and local governments must make the best use of available budget to maintain the existing street network under the current budget environment. Mathematical optimization models can help to identify the optimal maintenance and rehabilitation strategy. This paper compares a linear versus a non-linear optimization model for pavement network management. Both models use the Markov transitional probabilities to represent pavement network deterioration, and both have been implemented as spreadsheet tools for use by municipalities. These tools allow users to estimate the minimum budget required to maintain a pavement network to achieve a desired network condition. For a given budget, the tools can be used to determine the budget allocation required to achieve the best network condition. The algorithms for both models are presented, and the results produced from the two models are compared.
  Authors: Gao, Lijun; Chou, Yein-Juin; Wang, Shuo
  Authors: Gao, Lijun; Chou, Yein-Juin; Wang, Shuo
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Design; Pavements
  Session: 662
  Paper Number: 13-4953
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Proposed New Performance Indicator: Vehicle Operating Cost Index due to Road Roughness
  Authors: Costello, Seosamh
  Authors: Costello, Seosamh
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation; Poster
  Subject: Design; Pavements
  Session: 662
  Paper Number: 13-1265
• Optimization and Prioritization Methods for Pavement Network Management
  Authors: Torres-Machi, Cristina
  Authors: Torres-Machi, Cristina
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation; Poster
  Subject: Design; Pavements
  Session: 662
  Paper Number: 13-5057
• Pavement Management: Capturing Surface Treatment Effectiveness
  Authors: Amador-Jimenez, Luis
  Authors: Amador-Jimenez, Luis
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation; Poster
  Subject: Design; Pavements
  Session: 662
  Paper Number: 13-0568
• Comparison of Pavement Network Management Tools Based on Linear and Nonlinear Optimization Methods
  Authors: Gao, Lijun
  Authors: Gao, Lijun
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation; Poster
  Subject: Design; Pavements
  Session: 662
  Paper Number: 13-4953
• Comparative Analysis of Promising Algorithms for Pavement Homogeneous Segmentation
  Abstract:

  The roads represented by the condition data must be split into homogenous parts of similar values or even statistically uniform properties, and be aggregated as meaningful road units or segments to be treated with certain countermeasures in Pavement Management Systems (PMS). The preparation of the sectioning data potentially has a significant impact on the results. In the past years, several algorithms were developed to detect the homogenous sections; however it was found that there are currently no practical or widely acceptable guidelines on the issue how to choose and apply the algorithms properly. The most relevant previous studies involving pavement segmentation algorithms were reviewed and their findings reported. On the engineer point of view, some algorithms are difficult to be implemented in normal pavement management for issues of the data acquisition, complicated calculation, time consuming or additional software required. The deflection measurements obtained from two sections in UK was analyzed with seven selected promising algorithms for the purpose to verify their effectiveness and efficiency covering parameter sensitivity, data pretreatment and post treatment to ensure the requirements of both statistical significance and engineering practice. Finally, a new procedure consisting means of wavelet, CART, t-test and quality control method for identification of large peaks to apply the segmentation algorithms is proposed and verified by the measurements series successfully. The findings can be used to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of PMS to yield reliable and rational results for maintenance strategy.

  Authors: Zhang, Gaoqiang; Flintsch, Gerardo W.
  Authors: Zhang, Gaoqiang; Flintsch, Gerardo W.
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Design; Pavements
  Session: 662
  Paper Number: 13-4650