Investigation of Cost-effectiveness and Application Time of Pavement Maintenance Treatments in Jiangsu, China

With the availability of historical pavement maintenance records and collected pavement performance data in the pavement management system (PMS), it is of great importance to investigate the cost-effectiveness of different maintenance treatments and the optimal application time of preventive maintenance. This study took a deep investigation into the cost-effectiveness and application time of typical pavement treatments used in Jiangsu, China. Rutting depth was selected as the pavement performance indicator since it is more critical than roughness index. The life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) method was used to compare the cost of different treatments and the benefit over cost ratio was calculated to quantify treatment cost-effectiveness. Analyses results show that thin hot mix asphalt (HMA) overlays and micro surfacing more cost-effective than the other two treatments on low and moderate traffic roads. Hot in-place recycling and thick HMA overlays have much longer service lives and greater cost-effectiveness under heavy or extra heavy traffic. Compared with growth model, linear model, logarithm model, and exponential model, cubic rutting model has higher R squares, and can capture the sigmoid shape of the deterioration curve. The turning point in the sigmoid deterioration curve, corresponding to the maximum increasing rate, can be determined by taking the first derivative of the cubic model. Generally, pavement deteriorates much faster when the rutting depth reaches 10 mm. The heavier the traffic on roads is, the earlier is the age of the turning point. It is recommended to apply preventive maintenance before the beginning of severe deterioration, which is more cost-effective than rehabilitation.