In the beginning of 1999 the City Council of Lisbon, in Portugal, decided to build a Pavement Management System (PMS) for the vast road network under its administration. This paper presents a GIS-based Pavement Management System for Lisbon, developed by a team involving staff from the Lisbon City Council and the University of Coimbra. The system consists of three basic modules: a Road Network Database; a Quality Evaluation Tool; and a Decision-Aid Tool. The paper also describes the process leading to the creation of the PMS and the activities developed within the first and second years of its implementation. This period was mainly occupied with the preparation of a Geographic Information System for the road network, preparation of the Quality Evaluation Tool and launching the Decision-Aid Tool implementation. The final part of the paper contains a reflection on the main difficulties encountered so far and presents the developments planned for the near future.