Developing a methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of pavement treatments applied to low-volume paved roads

Abstract

ABSTRACTA significant number of agencies allocate low funding levels for their low-volume roads (LVRs) as part of their pavement management system (PMS) funding strategies. Although agencies have been applying a number of low-cost treatments, the effectiveness of the applied treatments towards improving pavement performance is not well understood or documented. The application of low-cost treatments on roads has different levels of impact on the pavement performance depending on the initial pavement condition. This study introduces a methodology of evaluating in-practice surface treatments on LVRs. The methodology can be implemented by different transportation agencies using historical data of pavement condition and treatment records. A case study of managing LVRs in Colorado was investigated using the historical PMS data of Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). The performance of pavement in the context of fatigue, longitudinal, and transverse cracking was analysed and the results show different trends of common treatment options applied to LVRs. It was concluded that some surface maintenance strategies are effective long-term treatments for fatigue, longitudinal, and transverse cracking. However, the effectiveness of these treatments depends mainly on the initial condition index. The findings of this study permits increased understanding of selected maintenance treatments. An appropriate maintenance strategy was developed including all effective treatments. The comprehensive long-term analysis of road maintenance and costs shows that the proposed maintenance strategy is more cost-effective compared to the current policy followed by CDOT.