A pavement maintenance management system designed for the city of Winnipeg

Abstract

A large portion of the regional street network in Winnipeg is comprised of Portland Cement Concrete pavements--pavements which are susceptible to damage caused by freeze-thaw cycles. Due to the high number of freeze-thaw cycles in Winnipeg, pavement maintenance is therefore important. The goal of this project is to develop a method of selecting effective and efficient pavement maintenance strategies. There are two elements of pavement maintenance management, (1) reactive, (2) proactive. The reactive method proposed in this report invokes using a maintenance activity assignment procedure that is dependent on human experience, to develop rules which are used to assign maintenance treatments to pavements based on condition. The proactive technique proposed involves assessing the probability that the pavement will deteriorate one condition category in one analysis period, and recommending a long-term maintenance strategy based on that probability and background information. Once the long-term strategy is recommended, the individual life-cycle maintenance strategies for each pavement are developed. Using a form of life-cycle cost analysis, the lowest cost alternatives are chosen. Once all of the pavements being considered have a life-cycle maintenance strategy then the pavements are ranked in order of importance. This is done so that the highest ranking pavements are funded until the budget is exhausted. Maintenance on lower-ranking projects is deferred until sufficient funding can be obtained. The system depends on a level of funding that has not been available to maintenance engineers and planners in recent years.