Optimal Performance Threshold Determination for Highway Asset Interventions: Analytical Framework and Application

Abstract

Civil asset managers continue to seek appropriate thresholds of asset performance for applying standard interventions. Recognizing that between the two extremes of profligacy and parsimony there exists a certain optimal intervention application threshold that is consistent with greatest possible overall benefits at least possible overall costs, this paper develops a framework for establishing such thresholds. The framework dimensions are costs (monetary) and benefits (durability and service life), agency and user cost considerations, and initial and life-cycle contexts. The paper utilizes well-established concepts of cost-effectiveness analysis to address the long-standing conundrum of optimal asset performance threshold determination. The application of the methodology is then demonstrated for a common pavement rehabilitation treatment, and the derived optimal thresholds are compared with those of past practice. The results showed that for this treatment, the past practice is not only inconsistent with optimal practice but is also associated with significant variability thus precluding its suitability for the practice. The developed methodology can be used to establish performance thresholds for various standard interventions not only in the management of transportation assets but also of systems in civil and other engineering disciplines.