Practical Tool for Prioritizing Rehabilitation and Preventive Maintenance in Pavements

This paper describes the development of a practical tool for selecting and prioritizing rehabilitation (RH) and preventive maintenance (PM) activities in roadway pavements. The development was based on data collected through a survey of district engineers of the Texas Department of Transportation (DOT). The survey collected data on the key factors used for selecting the projects to be treated and for deciding on RH versus PM treatments: pavement condition and distress scores, average daily traffic, surface age, ride score, and past PM expenditures. Weight factors were developed for each key factor by fitting simple logit curves to data obtained by surveying the 25 Texas DOT districts. These weights were aggregated into a prioritization score for PM treatment and another for RH treatments. This process was implemented into an Excel-based tool. The output of this tool was successfully compared with actual district decisions on the type of treatment applied and the priority assigned to pools of projects.