Asset Management

Pavement Management Practices in State Highway Agencies: Newington, Connecticut Peer Exchange Results

Chapter 1: Introduction

Background

In its continuing efforts to provide research and technology transfer activities in support of improving pavement conditions nationwide, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is sponsoring a series of Peer Exchange meetings. These meetings provide pavement management practitioners in state highway agencies (SHAs) throughout the United States with the opportunity to share pavement management practices and exchange ideas for using their tools to support agency decisions in the following areas:

• Data needs and quality
• Short- and long-term planning
• Treatment selection to improve pavement conditions
• Performance modeling and predicting future conditions

The Peer Exchange meetings also provide an opportunity for participants to share information about the cost of collecting and reporting pavement condition data and to identify national initiatives that could result in the development and deployment of innovative materials, processes, and technologies for the effective design, construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance of pavements. The Peer Exchange meetings focus on the use of pavement management tools to support agency decisions regarding the allocation and use of available funding to preserve the highway network.

The first Pavement Management Peer Exchange Meeting was held in February 2008. It included representatives from the New York and California Departments of Transportation and the FHWA. These individuals met with representatives from the Minnesota Department of Transportation in Maplewood, Minnesota on February 4-5, 2008 and then with representatives from the Utah Department of Transportation in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 7-8, 2008.

The second Pavement Management Peer Exchange Meeting was held in Nashville, Tennessee on September 23-24, 2009. Representatives from four SHAs and five FHWA Division offices participated in this meeting in addition to representatives from FHWA Headquarters and the Atlanta Resource Center.

The third Pavement Management Peer Exchange Meeting was held in Golden, Colorado on November 17-18, 2009 while the fourth was held in Madison, Wisconsin on August 24-25, 2010. The SHAs participated in the meeting along with representatives from FHWA Headquarters and Division offices. The meeting built on the framework introduced at the prior Pavement Management Peer Exchange Meetings.

This report documents the results of the fifth Pavement Management Peer Exchange held in Newington, Connecticut on September 8-9, 2010, 2010. Seven SHAs and representatives from the FHWA Division office for each state were represented at the meeting. The format for the meeting was identical to that used for the meetings in Golden, Colorado and Madison, Wisconsin.

At the writing of this report the previous Pavement Management Peer Exchange reports are in various stages of publication. When complete, they can all be accessed through the FHWA website at: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/asstmgmt

Participating Agencies

The participants in the North Atlantic Peer Exchange held in Newington, Connecticut included representatives from the following agencies:

• Connecticut Department of Transportation
• Maine Department of Transportation
• Massachusetts Department of Transportation
• New Hampshire Department of Transportation
• New Jersey Department of Transportation
• Rhode Island Department of Transportation
• Vermont Agency of Transportation
• FHWA Division Offices in each State
• FHWA Resource Center Staff
• FHWA Office of Asset Management.

The names of the participants in the North Atlantic Peer Exchange are listed in Table 1-1.

Report Organization

The report includes the following chapters:

• Chapter 1: Introduction.
• Chapter 2: Using pavement management data to support decision making.
• Chapter 3: Using pavement management for short- and long-term planning.
• Chapter 4: Establishing links with pavement preservation and maintenance and operations.
• Chapter 5: Developing performance models and performance measures using pavement condition information.
• Chapter 6: The economics of pavement management: cost-effectiveness and cost savings.
• Chapter 7: Technical issues related to comparison of performance measures.
• Chapter 8: Summary.

Chapters 2 through 7 address the six topics discussed during the meeting. The first five topics were selected by FHWA. The sixth topic, technical issues related to comparison of performance measures, was selected by the participants.

For chapters 2 through 7, the following topics were addressed for each issue:

• Topic Summary
• Current Practice Among Participating Agencies
• Issues Identified
• Needs to Enhance the Use of Pavement Management
• Highlighted Practices

An appendix providing background information about each of the participating SHAs is included in Appendix A.