Cost and Benefit Evaluation for Pavement Preventive Maintenance

Currently, many highway managers have accepted the conception of Pavement Preventive Maintenance (PPM), but key to the application of the PPM is how to show its actual benefits from an owners' standpoint. There is no mature model and approach for evaluating the costs and benefits of the PPM programme at present. The cost and benefit frame of the PPM and some evaluating methods were discussed and analyzed in this paper. Based on analyzing how the PPM influences life-cycle cost of highway, an approach of PPM financial evaluation methodology was demonstrated. By comparing the differences between the PPM and the "do nothing" strategy and considering toll revenue in toll roads, a methodology of net annual value difference was proposed to evaluate the contribution of the PPM to highway life-cycle costs and benefits. The reliability and utility of this approach was proved with a case study.