Optimal Performance Threshold Determination for Highway Asset Interventions: Analytical Framework and Application
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 2
Abstract
Civil asset managers continue to seek appropriate thresholds of asset performance for applying standard interventions. Recognizing that between the two extremes of profligacy and parsimony there exists a certain optimal intervention application threshold that is consistent with greatest possible overall benefits at least possible overall costs, this paper develops a framework for establishing such thresholds. The framework dimensions are costs (monetary) and benefits (durability and service life), agency and user cost considerations, and initial and life-cycle contexts. The paper utilizes well-established concepts of cost-effectiveness analysis to address the long-standing conundrum of optimal asset performance threshold determination. The application of the methodology is then demonstrated for a common pavement rehabilitation treatment, and the derived optimal thresholds are compared with those of past practice. The results showed that for this treatment, the past practice is not only inconsistent with optimal practice but is also associated with significant variability thus precluding its suitability for the practice. The developed methodology can be used to establish performance thresholds for various standard interventions not only in the management of transportation assets but also of systems in civil and other engineering disciplines.
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Acknowledgments
Data for the case study were supplied by the Indiana DOT. The contents of this paper reflect the views of the writers who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein and do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the Federal Highway Administration and the Indiana DOT, nor do the contents constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 2 • February 2011
Pages: 128 - 139
Copyright
© 2011 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 3, 2010
Accepted: Jun 18, 2010
Published online: Jul 19, 2010
Published in print: Feb 2011
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