Mechanistic-Empirical and Life-Cycle Cost Analysis for Optimizing Flexible Pavement Maintenance and Rehabilitation
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 5
Abstract
In this study, an attempt was made to evaluate and select an optimal Maintenance and Rehabilitation (M&R) strategy for a designed flexible pavement by integrating Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) and California Mechanistic-Empirical (M-E) design procedures (CalME). A 20-year design life pavement stretching 11.27-km-long section of 4-lane Highway 53, in Lake County, California is considered for this project level study. Three M&R strategies available in the CalME program were evaluated including, Extended Pavement Preservation (EPP), Preservation-Preservation-Rehabilitation (PPR), and Rehabilitation only (R). These strategies are applied as certain levels of distresses (rutting and cracking) are reached. The California-customized RealCost LCCA program was also employed to compare the various M&R strategies using the Equivalent Uniform Annual Cost (EUAC). LCCA demonstrated that EPP was the best economical alternative to maintain the pavement in a good usable condition for as long as 80 years of service. The methodology employed in this paper also demonstrated that extended life pavement may be achieved from a 20-year design by selecting the optimal preservation techniques and optimizing their time of application.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
CA DOT. (2007). “Life-cycle cost analysis procedure manual.” State of California, Caltrans. 〈http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/maint/Pavement/Offices/Pavement_Engineering/LCCA_index.html〉 (Mar. 19, 2012).
CA DOT. (2008b). “Highway design manual.” Chapter 600, July 1, 2008.
CA DOT. (2010). Pavement Climate Map, 〈http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/Translab/ope/Climate.html〉 (last accessed on July 20, 2010).
Caltrans Division of Maintenance. (2008a). “Mtag volume 1: Flexible pavement preservation.” 2nd Ed., February, 2008.
European Asphalt Pavement Association. (EAPA). (2007). “Long-Life asphalt pavements.” Technical Version, June 2007.
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). (2004). “Life-Cycle cost analysis real cost user manual.” Office of Asset Management, May 2004, Washington, DC.
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). (2005). “Pavement preservation definitions.” Memorandum, September 12, 2005, Washington, DC.
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). (2008). “Life-Cycle cost analysis in pavement design.” Pavement Division Interim Technical Bulletin, September 2008, Washington, DC.
Gardiner, M., and Shatnawi, S. (2009). “Economics of flexible pavement preservation.” Transportation Research Record 09–3265, Annual Meeting paper, Washington, DC.
Lu, Q., and Harvey, J. (2006). “Characterization of truck traffic in California for mechanistic empirical design transportation research record.” National Research Council, J. Transp. Research Board, No. 1945, 61–72.
Newcomb, D., Richard, W., and Timm, D. (2010). Perpetual asphalt pavements: A synthesis, Asphalt Pavement Alliance, IM-40, Lanham, MD.
Ullidtz, P., Harvey, J., Basheer, I., Jones, D., Wu, R., Lea, J., and Lu, Q. (2010). “CalME: Mechanistic-empirical design program for flexible pavement rehabilitation.” Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2153, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, DC, 143–152.
Yut, I., Nener-Plante, D., and Zofka, A. (2010). “Preservation of flexible pavements in Connecticut.” Transportation Research Record, Annual Meeting (CD-ROM), Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 22, 2011
Accepted: Oct 17, 2011
Published online: Apr 16, 2012
Published in print: May 1, 2012
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.