Maintenance Planning for Road Pavements and Structures—Commonality of Principles and Procedures

Pavements and bridges are the main components of a road infrastructure system. Both essentially perform a structural function in that they transfer the traffic loads to the foundation level or sub-grade below. In order to achieve a common rational approach for determining and funding their maintenance expenditure, it is necessary to understand the overall engineering processes involved in predicting and planning maintenance work in the two areas, their differences and similarities. Clearly, some of the differences will be fundamental, while others are nothing more than the same processes in a different guise. This paper is intended to provide an overview of the similarities and differences in the maintenance procedures used for road pavement and structures.