Strategic Pavement Maintenance and Rehabilitation Analysis of Urban Road Network Using HDM-4

An efficient pavement management system assists the pavement engineers and authorities responsible for allocating funds for making cost-effective and consistent decisions about pavement maintenance management. Highway Development and Management System (HDM-4) is deployed to predict future technical and economic outcomes of potential investment decisions regarding maintenance management of road networks. The objective of the current work is to forecast budget requirements and predict the performance trends of an urban road network using the strategy analysis method of HDM-4. The analysis is carried out for two objective functions: maximizing Net Present Value and minimizing the total costs for a target road roughness. An unconstrained works program is formulated for 20-year analysis period. The total budget requirements for road network maintenance at a pre-defined serviceability level were estimated. A prioritized and optimized works program is developed to maintain the road network within the available budget. The effect of the reduction in budget levels on the road network condition was also studied. The study revealed that the strategy application of HDM-4 has a potential scope in pavement management works by forecasting budget requirements and assessing the impact of various investment alternatives.