Modern Pavement Management

xvm [1], 583, [5] pages. Illustrations. Tabular Data. Review Questions. References. Index. Publisher's ephemera laid in. No dust jacket present. Cover has slight wear and soiling. This book focuses on the process of pavement management including: data acquisition and evaluation, network level priority programming, project level design, construction and maintenance, and the principles, methods, and technology which enable the process to become a working system. Examples of working systems are provided, as well as guidelines for implementation. Research management, future issues, special problems, new technologies, and innovation opportunities are also addressed. The book shows that good pavement management will result in safe, cost-effective pavements through the coordinated, systematic conduct of data, priority programming, design, construction, maintenance, and other activities. "The book provides a comprehensive coverage of the concepts and principles of pavement management systems and thus provides a good reference reading for practitioners concerned with managing road pavements." -- Geoff Jameson, Road & Transport Research, June 1994. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) defines pavement management as ".the effective and efficient directing of the various activities involved in providing and sustaining pavements in a condition acceptable to the traveling public at the least life cycle cost (AASHTO, 1985)." This concept of providing pavements and maintaining them in acceptable condition is as old as the first pavement. As pavement networks grew slowly in the first half of the twentieth century and then quickly in the 1950s and 1960s, simple procedures or experience were no longer able to manage these burgeoning networks. A more holistic systems approach was needed. Originally described as "a systems approach to pavement design", the term "pavement management system (PMS)" came into popular use in the late 1960s and early 1970s to describe decision support tools for the entire range of activities involved in providing and maintaining pavements (OECD, 1987 and Peterson, 1987). Hudson et al. (1979) describe a "total pavement management system" as ".a coordinated set of activities, all directed toward achieving the best value possible for the available public funds in providing and operating smooth, safe, and economical pavements." Haas and Hudson (1978) expand on this by defining "activities" as those actions associated with pavement planning, design, construction, maintenance, evaluation and research. There are numerous different pavement management systems (PMS) from which to choose, each one with its own level of complexity. For a small town or rural county a simple system based on visual inspection and maintained in a Microsoft Excel or Access database may be more than sufficient. For a state road network a more complex PMS is usually appropriate. Most formal definitions of a "pavement management system" agree on five key components: 1) Pavement condition surveys. Pavement condition surveys were probably the first PMS component to be adopted on a large scale by U.S. transportation agencies. For example, WSDOT, a PMS early adopter, began pavement surveys in about 1965; Condition survey research is largely concerned with advancing or refining measurement and data collection; 2) Database containing all related pavement information. Databases have evolved along with the pavement condition survey data they are designed to house. Computer databases gained prevalence in the 1970s and as adequate, cost effective computing power and storage became available. Recent research has concentrated on implementing more robust databases (e.g., Microsoft SQL server, Oracle, etc.) and better user interfaces including GIS-based spatial interfaces. These interfaces are as important as the data itself because they enable users to view and manipulate data in a meaningful way; 3) Analysis scheme. Analysis.…