This proposed project addresses the commonly held assumption that maintenance costs can be neglected in life cycle cost analyses (LCCA) performed in support of pavement type selection. Maintenance costs are presumed to be small in magnitude and approximately equal for alternative pavement types, thus exhibiting minimal influence on the LCCA results. The NCDOT Pavement Management Unit (PMU) records maintenance cost data in the Pavement Management System (PMS) and Maintenance Management System (MMS) databases. The data will be used to construct and validate maintenance costs streams for flexible, rigid, and composite (asphalt over concrete) pavements on interstate and primary roadways. These cost streams will be evaluated to determine whether they exhibit minimal influence on LCCA by comparing the maintenance costs to construction and rehabilitation costs, and comparing the maintenance costs for different pavement types.
The research products resulting from this project are:Review of literature regarding maintenance costs and LCCA for pavement type selectionRecommendations regarding the sufficiency of existing PMS and MMS data for quantifying and evaluating maintenance cost streamsTypical maintenance cost streams for flexible, rigid, and composite pavementsRecommendations regarding whether maintenance costs should be included in LCCA for pavement type selectionSpreadsheet tool for performing LCCARecommended guidelines for LCCA in support of pavement type selection.
