Evaluation of Effects of Priority Preferences on Optimal Resource Allocation in Pavement Management

Abstract

Certain aspects of prioritization have commonly been employed in the optimum resource allocation program for pavement maintenance management. However, issues associated with incorporating priority preferences into pavement maintenance programming have not been evaluated. For example, application of priority weights to certain problem parameters will affect the optimality of the end solution with respect to the original objective. However, the degree of loss in optimality is related to the form or structure, the magnitudes, and the range of priority weights adopted. Decision makers, who adopt such an approach, are often oblivious to the degree of sub-optimality of the solutions. Therefore, this paper presents a study that examines the implications of applying priority weights, of varying magnitudes and ranges, in the pavement maintenance programming analysis in terms of optimality of the solution/strategy.