Implementing New York State Department of Transportation’s Pavement Preventive Maintenance Program

Abstract

The New York State Department of Transportation developed and implemented an aggressive pavement preventive maintenance program in the early 1990s. The program was initiated in a bottom-up approach based on an informal pavement preventive maintenance program used for 20 years by field personnel. Upper-level managers were convinced of the efficacy of the preventive maintenance strategy, and executive management adopted such a program. Executive management included a preventive maintenance strategy in the Long-Term Financing Plan that became the Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund of 1991. The program succeeded in NYSDOT’s decentralized environment because of the inclusion of field-level personnel in its development. The treatment cycles of the pavement preventive maintenance program are described as are the newly developed contracting tools. The first two successful years of the program are highlighted. Various threats to the program, such as reduced funding due to the scarcity of budget resources, no. funding for several months in the construction season due to budget delay, inappropriate use and over-application of treatments, and internal competition for limited resources from other program areas, are discussed. Other highway agencies intending to implement a pavement preventive maintenance program may benefit from the experience described in New York.