Quantifying the effectiveness of pavement maintenance and rehabilitation

Parametric models for the physical effects of various maintenance activities are developed in the paper for use in pavement management and planning models. The effects are characterized for individual modes of distress, including cracking, ravelling, potholing, rutting and roughness, and separately for the immediate step-changes in condition and the long-term impact on performance. The models are estimated empirically from field data, and supported where necessary by a rational framework and, for asphalt overlays, by theoretical simulation. Parametric models are able to indicate the relative impacts of key factors on the maintenance effects, and these ones are used in the World Bank's HDM-III model. More widespread research on this modelling issue is encouraged (A).