Asset Management

Pavement Management Roadmap

3. A 10-Year Roadmap for Pavement Management

The Vision for Pavement Management

The successful adoption of the Pavement Management Roadmap is expected to lead to the increased use, and improved applicability, of pavement management by eliminating the barriers or gaps that limit its effectiveness or hinder its acceptance within an agency. Through comprehensive and coordinated efforts to address both the short-term (i.e., less than 5 years) and long-term (i.e., 5 to 10 years) research, development, technology, and workforce development activities identified in this Roadmap, practitioners can foresee the following vision of pavement management in the year 2020.

Prioritized Research, Development, and Technology Transfer Needs

The final research, development, and technology transfer needs within each theme are provided in Appendix B of this report. The comprehensive needs statements are presented in a format that can easily be used by any agency to secure the funding needed to advance any of the initiatives. The Pavement Management Roadmap presented in this section of the report prioritizes the urgency with which these activities should be addressed, based on the importance and priority rankings provided by the participants. As such, the prioritized list of short-term and long-term needs represents the urgency with which the participating pavement management stakeholders would address these activities. The results are presented in a number of different formats to emphasize the priorities across theme areas, as well as within theme areas.

In total, the suggested initiatives represent over $14.5 million in funding, with approximately $6.5 million representing short-term needs over the next 5 years and $8 million representing long-term needs to be initiated within the next 5 to 10 years. By theme area, the funding is distributed in accordance with the figures shown in table 5.

Table 6 and 7 present the prioritized listing of recommended needs to address the gaps in pavement management over the next 10 years, ignoring the four theme areas. Table 6 presents the prioritized listing of the short-term needs, and table 7 includes the prioritized listing of long-term needs.

Recommended Short-Term Needs by Theme Area

The regional workshops produced a total of twenty-three short-term research, development, and technology transfer needs to be addressed within the next 5 years to advance pavement management capabilities. To a significant degree, the problem statements emphasize the need for improved access to information about best practices, and better methods to communicate the importance of pavement management to transportation agencies. Additionally, stakeholders placed an emphasis on improving data quality and consistency. The top ten short-term research, development, and technology transfer needs are presented in this section of the report, by theme area. The entire set of problem statements for all needs can be found in Appendix B.

Theme 1: Use of Existing Technology and Tools

Needs statements included in theme 1 include recommendations for technology and tools that can support traditional pavement management applications. In general, this theme includes technology and tools that are currently available today but are in need of additional review, analysis, dissemination, and/or updating prior to their use.

The needs from this theme that are featured in the top ten list of short-term needs are provided in table 8. A total of $2,180,000 in funding is required to address these needs.

Theme 2: Institutional and Organizational Issues

The theme 2 needs statements relate to workforce development, communication, contracting, and organizational structure. The recommendations in this area are intended to address issues that include the impact pavement management on funding and how to determine, promote, and effectively communicate the use and the benefits of pavement management.

The needs from this theme that are featured in the top ten list of short-term needs are provided in table 8. A total of $880,000 in funding is required to address these needs.

Theme 3: The Broad Role of Pavement Management

Theme 3 includes needs statements that go beyond the standard functions of pavement management and include such areas as pavement design, impact of increasing load limits on pavement performance, and asset management.

The needs from this theme that are featured in the top ten list of short-term needs are provided in table 8. A total of $1,550,000 in funding is required to address these needs.

Theme 4: New Tools, Methodologies, and Technologies

The problem statements in theme 4 are related to needs for research and development leading to new tools, methods, and technology to support pavement management. In general, needs statements included in this theme address concepts that are not readily available and will require a higher level of research, analysis, and development prior to implementation.

The needs from this theme that are featured in the top ten list of short-term needs are provided in table 8. A total of $1,930,000 in funding is required to address these needs.

Other identified short-term needs not included in the top ten listing include the following:

• Theme 1: Use of Existing Technology and Tools
  • Comprehensive Study to Guide the Integration of Pavement Preservation and Pavement Management. In most agencies, pavement management data collection and analysis tools were established before pavement preservation techniques were used extensively. As a result, the data that are currently collected and the project selection processes are not necessarily easily modified to include preventive maintenance treatments. Therefore, this study will provide guidelines for adapting pavement management systems to fully support pavement preservation activities at the state and local levels. First, the researchers will conduct a synthesis of best practice, to determine how agencies have approached the integration of preventive maintenance treatments into pavement management. Based on that information, pavement preservation definitions will be developed that reflect activities associated with the management of pavement assets over their entire life cycle. The study will investigate the data needed to support the integration of preventive maintenance into pavement management and will identify various levels of integration (including the costs, benefits, and risks associated with each). The final product will provide guidance on how agencies can integrate their pavement preservation and pavement management practices at each of the levels identified.
  • Independent Technical Assessments of Pavement Management. The FHWA is a strong supporter of pavement management tools in state highway agencies, but the use of these tools is optional. Further, there are diverse approaches being used for data collection, reporting, and analysis within these agencies. There is also a lack of established appraisal methods for determining whether pavement management practices comply with "good practice." At the same time, agencies are facing funding constraints that limit the resources available to support pavement management. This study will support pavement management by establishing baseline capabilities for pavement management and conducting independent assessments within each of the state highway agencies to determine a) whether the baseline capabilities are met and b) how any deficiencies can be addressed. The study would be strengthened if funding were provided to agencies to help them address the existing deficiencies.
  • Pavement Management Clearinghouse. Technology advances in pavement distress data collection are often difficult to for an agency to monitor, evaluate, and determine implementation appropriateness. In addition, there are many resources that are of value to pavement management practitioners, but a great deal of time can be spent trying to locate the information. It would also be beneficial for transportation agencies to have a readily available list of local, regional, and national contractors and their capability of constructing the vast array of pavement preservation and rehabilitation treatments. In this manner, an agency looking to apply a specific treatment (e.g., microsurfacing, hot in-place recycling) can access a web-based clearinghouse to determine contractor capabilities. A centralized repository of equipment availability, technology advancements, resources, and contractor availability and capability is necessary. This study will develop requirements for establishing a pavement management clearinghouse, design and develop a website for housing the clearinghouse, and provide future website maintenance and updates.
  • Synthesis of External Issues Driving Pavement Management. There are many factors that impact pavement management that are beyond the control of agency staff or administrators. With changes in available funds for transportation, agencies have to adapt to new approaches for funding, contracting, and/or project acceptance. These external forces have undoubtedly influenced pavement management needs and priorities. This synthesis will investigate the factors that have impacted pavement management recently and document the ways that pavement managers have responded to these demands.
• Theme 2: Institutional and Organizational Issues
  • Annual Approval of SP&R Funding. The annual approval of SP&R funding does not currently match the timing of data collection and processing for most state highway agencies. When SP&R funds are available for use, they expire at the end of the year making difficult for the state highway agency to expend the approved funds. This study will identify the SP&R funding restrictions, identify solutions that will meet FWHA and state highway agency requirements, determine recommended solutions, and suggest policy changes.
  • Framework for Minimizing the Delivery of Treatment Applications. Often time's pavement rehabilitation/preservation projects are delayed due to plan preparation, advertising, and letting. This lag time between project selection and construction may render the selected treatment ineffective due to the advancement of pavement distress. There is a need to develop a process for reducing the timing between project selection and treatment application to ensure proper treatment application. This study will develop a framework for minimizing the lag time between project development and construction initiation.
  • Addressing Trade-offs, Metric Issues, and Purchasing Controls/Policies. Political, organizational issues, and organizational inertia frequently impede the pavement management process and the implementation of beneficial information for all entities. Key issues for these entities fit in the areas of trade-offs, metric terms/issues, policies, and purchasing controls. This study will survey state highway agencies to determine how new technology has been implemented and political and organization issues have been overcome.
• Theme 3: The Broad Role of Pavement Management
  • Pavement Management Data Mining: Improving Current Uses and Leveraging New Applications of Pavement Management Data. There is an untapped potential to make greater use of pavement management data to better address current agency needs and to provide insight into new areas (e.g. asset value, new design methods, improved construction practices, corridor studies, and impacts of weight limits on performance). However, for these types of analyses to take place, it is important that data from related data sources are better leveraged. This study will explore the issues associated with better leveraging of pavement management data and provide guidelines for overcoming these issues. Examples from case studies that illustrate new potential uses of pavement management data will be provided.
  • Load Limit Impacts on Pavement Performance. States are faced with requests for load exemptions and often grant or deny these requests without a full understanding of the overall impact of pavement performance. The national government is also pressured to raise the current 80,000 lb legal load limit to 97,000 lbs on interstate roadways. What is needed is an easy to use (and understand) analysis tool that will estimate the impacts due to increased axle loading. This tool would determine the best measure (e.g., IRI, percent cracking, rutting) for assessing the incremental impact, assess the impact over an entire pavement network, corridor, or specific roadway segment, and estimate the financial impact due to increased damage (i.e., added costs for preservation and rehabilitation treatments to maintain the roadway, corridor, or network).
  • Developing and Supporting a Pavement Management Business Plan. Pavement Management has been around for decades, but in some ways the integration of pavement management into the core business function of many agencies is very immature. Defining the focus for pavement management and defining and developing necessary skills should be documented in the form of a pavement management business plan. The term pavement management means very different things to different people. This research will define core business functions of pavement management, skills needed to support these core functions, ways to help practitioners develop those skills, strategies to push pavement management to be more prevalent in agency functions, and determine appropriate ways to address and manage the myriad of tangential functions that pull at pavement management.
  • Use of Pavement Management Information for National Reporting. In many states, HPMS data and pavement management data are collected by separate divisions or reported out by someone not involved in the data collection process. In some cases, the HPMS data are "passed off" without regard for the accuracy of reporting the information. As a result, there can be issues with data quality between what is collected by pavement management and what is reported to FHWA through the HPMS process. Additionally, there is an inefficient use of resources if similar data are being collected by two different groups within the same agency. There is also generally less buy-in or credibility in the HPMS data than in the pavement management data. Further, HPMS data does not always represent data that drives an agency's project and treatment selection process. During this study, an investigation will be conducted to determine the information needed at a national level to report pavement conditions to Congress. The results will be compared to available HPMS and pavement management data to determine strategies for using more pavement management data for national reporting and to lessen the reliance on separate HPMS data. A final product will be guidelines for a standardized method of reporting this information.
• Theme 4: New Tools, Methodologies, and Technologies
  • Analysis of Trade-Offs Associated with Alternate Methods of Data Collection. As new technology comes along to aid in the pavement management efforts, many agencies will be contemplating whether they should switch from their current practices and adopt these new ones. Due, in part, to limited budgets, but also as a practical matter, agencies will need to determine which of their current activities can be modified or even eliminated as a result of this new technology. This project would develop a procedure that agencies can follow to determine the trade-offs and weigh the benefits of switching to a new technology. This study will review what data is currently being collected, identify equipment and analysis procedures that are being used, and what, little used new technology might be available for a state agency to consider. In addition, develop a tool to show the trade-offs of one versus the other capturing the pros/cons, added costs or savings, etc. so that there can be a clear discovery of the impact this change would have on the agency's budget, labor force, analysis schedule, etc. Case studies will be conducted to show the results of this study.
  • Pavement Management in a Changing World. Pavement management must operate in an environment that is constantly changing. For instance, there are continual changes in leadership and each change typically brings new agendas. There are also unfunded mandates, changes in freight weights and movements, increased data requirements, scope creep, and changes in regulations that must be addressed. Transportation agencies have limited experience communicating the impacts of these changes on the highway network. This study will result in the development of metrics that help agencies identify what aspects can be addressed by pavement management and what aspects cannot be represented in a pavement management analysis.

Recommended Long-Term Needs by Theme Area

The regional workshops produced a total of twenty-four long-term research, development, and technology transfer needs to be addressed within the next 5 to 10 years to advance pavement management capabilities. As opposed to the short-term needs, this list includes activities that will require research to develop methods to improve existing practices. The highest ranked needs indicate that efforts are needed to define and calculate the impact of pavement preservation treatments, and to determine the impact of different investment levels on pavement management capabilities. Additional efforts address the need to better support pavement design activities with pavement management, including the need to effectively model structural condition and series of treatments over a pavement life cycle. The top ten long-term research, development, and technology transfer needs are described in this section of the report, by theme area. The entire set of problem statements for all of the needs identified, can be found in Appendix B.

Theme 1: Use of Existing Technology and Tools

Need statements included in theme 1 include recommendations for technology and tools that can support traditional pavement management applications. In general, this theme includes technology and tools that are currently available today, but are in need of additional review, analysis, dissemination, and/or updating prior to their use.

The needs from this theme that are featured in the top ten list of long-term needs are provided in table 9. A total of $850,000 in funding is required to address these needs.

Theme 2: Institutional and Organizational Issues

The theme 2 needs statements presented in this section of the report relate to workforce development, communication, contracting, and organizational structure. The recommendations in this area are intended to address issues that include the impact pavement management on funding and how to determine, promote, and effectively communicate the use and the benefits of pavement management.

The needs from this theme that are featured in the top ten list of long-term needs are provided in table 9. A total of $780,000 in funding is required to address these needs.

Theme 3: The Broad Role of Pavement Management

Theme 3 includes needs statements that go beyond the standard functions of pavement management and include such areas as pavement design, impact of increasing load limits on pavement performance, and asset management.

The needs from this theme that are featured in the top ten list of long-term needs are provided in table 9. A total of $1,300,000 in funding is required to address these needs.

Theme 4: New Tools, Methodologies, and Technologies

The problem statements in theme 4 are related to needs for research and development leading to new tools, methods, and technology to support pavement management. In general, needs statements included in this theme address concepts that are not readily available and will require a higher level of research, analysis, and development prior to implementation.

The needs from this theme that are featured in the top ten list of long-term needs are provided in table 9. A total of $5,100,000 in funding is required to address these needs.

Other identified long-term needs not included in the top ten listing include the following:

• Theme 2: Institutional and Organizational Issues
  • Recommended Methodology to Calculate Pavement Asset Value and Communicate to Stakeholders. Asset management systems have traditionally been required to answer the following fundamental questions: what assets do we have, where are they, and what condition are they in? A fourth but equally fundamental question now also exists: what is the value of our assets both today and expected over the life cycle? This study will conduct a literature review of asset valuation methodology for civil infrastructure and particularly on how it has been applied to pavements at the strategic, network, and project level; identify the positive features and the methodology shortcomings; review GASB 34 requirements and reporting procedures; and prepare recommendations for pavement asset valuation.
  • Suggested Topics for Pavement Management Into the Civil Engineering Curriculum. There is not sufficient emphasis on pavement management in a civil engineering curriculum. As a result, there is a steep learning curve for new practitioners. Therefore, there is a need to raise the awareness of pavement management concepts in the existing college curriculums.
  • Constant Funding for Pavement Management. Inconsistent levels of funding make it difficult for pavement management staff to keep pavement conditions at a consistent level and to predict future needs (preservation, rehabilitation, and reconstruction) of the system. Additionally, it is difficult to maintain a consistent level of work for designers and contractors. This study will conduct a synthesize of current approaches for allocating funding, summarize the advantages/disadvantages of each approach, quantify the impacts of suboptimal allocations, and identify the monetary needs for a consistent pavement management work program will be established to allow agencies to optimize pavement treatments and funding.
  • Identify IT Needs to Effectively Manage a Pavement Management System. As agencies seek to achieve efficiencies in information technology practices, users of technologies are experiencing challenges for accessing, manipulating, and using technology associated with IT. This study will identify common goals of centrally management decision makers and identify needs and gaps between pavement management managers and centrally managed IT managers.
• Theme 3: The Broad Role of Pavement Management
  • Identify Data Needs to Support Other Processes. As data collection has become more sophisticated, the demand on data contained within the pavement management system has increased. This has been noted by pavement performance data for use in calibration of the MEPDG, the HPMS reassessment, warranties, public-private partnerships, forensic studies, and so on. An assessment of what data is needed to support these various applications is needed. This study will identify applications that could benefit from pavement management data, identify current data that can be used to improve/enhance these applications, identify gaps in needed data, and provide guidelines on how to better utilize pavement management data in other applications.
  • Methodologies to Reliably Support Innovative Contracting. With increases in the use of warranty, concessionary, and public-private-partnerships, and other innovative contracting processes, changes in the use of pavement management data can be expected. For instance, historical pavement performance data and forecasted conditions may be used to set acceptable condition levels and to determine whether contractual performance requirements have been satisfied. As a result, a higher level of reliability is required of the data than is needed for traditional processes and so data collection processes may need to be modified. The focus of this research effort is to determine the changing needs on pavement management associated with innovative contracting and the development of recommendations for addressing these needs.
  • Impact of Earmarks on Pavement Performance. Earmarks can use (consume) considerable SHA funding, leaving less funds to address the needs of the entire highway system. Some earmarks require bond indebtedness that has a long lasting obligation to the SHA. When earmarks are large in dollars or numbers, they significantly alter the ability of the SHA to address pressing needs such as pavement preservation. This study will investigate the impact that earmarks have had on pavement conditions in select states. The findings will be used to promote the reduction or elimination of earmarks and their impact on transportation funding.
• Theme 4: New Tools, Methodologies, and Technologies
  • Quantifying the Cost of Pavement Use. It is likely that "pay per use" strategies for funding transportation projects will be used increasingly in the future. However, this requires agencies to quantify the cost of providing a sound, safe pavement for customer use so that rational pricing schemes can be developed. In addition, the research needs to investigate the pavement management data needed to support this type of initiatives. The research will result in the development of an economic framework to derive the pricing scheme and guidelines on its use.
  • Develop NDT for Measurement of In-Place Material Properties. Areas of low density in HMA pavements are susceptible to early failure due to stripping, cracking, and potholes. Low strength in PCC pavements can result in fatigue cracking, poor load transfer, and spalling. The ability to quantify full-width material properties, such as HMA density and PCC strength, would be beneficial for determining contractor pay incentives, quality assurance, and performance prediction models. Research using ground penetrating radar (GPR) to determine HMA density has been conducted; however, this process has not received wide-spread use in the United States. Similarly for PCC, the use of impact echo and spectral analysis of surface waves have been evaluated and utilized, but have not received wide-spread use. This study will review current research, identify limitations/benefits of testing equipment and procedures, and identify the most effective and accurate methodology for determining in-place material properties, full-width, at highway speed.
  • Quantifying the Benefits of Pavement Research. Several industries, such as the pharmaceutical industry, regularly invest a percent of their sales in research and development activities. This practice is not widely practices in the transportation agency; therefore, the consequences associated with the lack of funded research are not well understood. Under this research effort, a method of evaluating the investment made in research will be developed and demonstrated. The results of this effort are expected to lead to increased innovation in pavement management.
  • Develop Default Models for Low-Volume Roads. Many pavement management systems were not developed using data from low-volume roadways. The MEPDG, due to lack of data, specifically excluded low-volume roadways. Pavement performance and treatment selection on low-volume roadways can be significantly different than that of higher volume roadways. This research will investigate the availability of data (e.g., performance, construction, and traffic) on low-volume roadways, will modify/develop performance prediction equations, develop pavement design procedures/practices, and develop guidelines for incorporating low-volume roadways into pavement management systems and pavement design practices (specifically, DARWin-ME).
  • Impact of Climate Change on Performance Prediction. Little is known about the impact of climate change (e.g., temperature rise, sea level rise, and increased storm frequency) on the future performance of highway pavements. This study will investigate pavement performance on roadway networks subjected to the effects of climate change, evaluating existing models on predicting changes in pavement performance, and develop/revise models as necessary to reflect these impacts.
  • Development and Integration of Wireless Sensors with Pavement Management. There is on-going research to develop a self-contained smart pavement monitoring system consisting of wireless integrated circuit sensors. The envisioned system would consist of a network of low cost sensors distributed along the pavement during new/reconstruction or resurfacing. Each sensor node would be self-powered and capable of continuously monitoring and storing the dynamic strain levels in host pavement structure. The data from all the sensors would be periodically uploaded wirelessly to a central database. The data will help facilitate a more effective pavement maintenance and rehabilitation/preservation schedule. Additional research is needed to optimize data collection and storage with these types of sensors. Efforts are needed to integrate this sort of data within existing agency databases in order to make optimal use of the data available.
  • Use of Aerial Images for Distress Analysis. Nationwide, the current method of collecting pavement distress involves either driving or walking thousands of miles of pavement. The use of satellite images for quantifying pavement distress may be another source of data collection. This study will determine the adequacy of satellite technology for distress identification, determine what additional process or procedures need to be developed or declassified to access this data, and determine its benefit/cost for implementation by state highway agencies.