Investigation into Application Time of Highway Asphalt Pavement Preventive Maintenance Treatments

Abstract

With the availability of historical pavement maintenance records and collected pavement performance data in the pavement management system (PMS) of highways in Jiangsu Province, it is of great importance to study the optimal application time of preventive maintenance. Rutting depth was selected as the pavement performance indicator since it is more critical than the other evaluation indexes. Pavement deteriorates much faster when the rutting depth reaches 10 mm. It is recommended to apply preventive maintenance before the beginning of severe deterioration, which is more cost-effective than rehabilitation. Heavier traffic on the highway causes the pavement to reach its turning point earlier. The life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) method was used to calculate the optimal application time of the preventive maintenance treatments. The application time of different preventive maintenance treatments is much the same, although the benefit over cost ratio is different between the different treatments.