Preserving Our Airfield Pavements

Abstract

The need to preserve our airfield pavement infrastructure is paramount to insuring the viability of transportation of people and goods. Preventive maintenance plays an important role in the preservation of airfield pavement infrastructure. A successful preventive maintenance program cannot function without the support of many features associated with pavement management systems (e.g., pavement inventory, condition assessment, and the framework for the identification and prioritization of pavement preservation treatments). The purpose of a preventive maintenance treatment is to prevent premature deterioration of the pavement, retard the progression of pavement defects, and cost-effectively extend the life of the pavement. The objective is to slow down the rate of pavement deterioration and effectively increase the useful life of the pavement. A preventive maintenance treatment is not determined by the type of treatment, but by the reason why the treatment is performed. For cost-effective preventive maintenance it is necessary to apply the right treatment to the right pavement at the right time. The objective is to identify the sections that would benefit most from preventive maintenance (the right pavement), do the identification and apply the treatment in a timely manner (the right time) and to select the most beneficial treatment (the right treatment). The effectiveness of preventive maintenance is largely dependent on the timing of maintenance activities. To ensure that funding for preventive maintenance is available when required, many practitioners advocate the establishment of adequate dedicated funds for preventive maintenance. The development and implementation of a preventive maintenance program should be done in a collaborative manner, and should be supported by training and educational activities. To succeed, a preventive maintenance program requires a long-term commitment, ongoing improvements, and the documentation and reporting of program benefits. This paper outlines 7 basic steps involved in developing and implementing a pavement preservation program for airport pavements and provides examples of decision matrices and life-cycle cost analysis procedures to apply and evaluate the success of pavement preservation treatments.