Present Pavement Maintenance Practice: A Case Study for Indian Conditions Using HDM-4

Highway agencies around the world have changed their attention from design and construction of new pavements to maintenance of already existing ones. Pavements must be selected for maintenance when they are still effective, before the need is apparent to the casual observers, in order to avoid the rapid deterioration after a certain limit. The objectives of this study are to highlight the present pavement maintenance practice around the world with a particular attention to the maintenance trend in India; and use Highway Development and Management (HDM-4) for the maintenance of a test section in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. This region has a humid, warm, and wet climate prevalent in the west coast of India. The test section has seven layers and is a six lane divided highway. Condition responsive maintenance has been carried out. Only cracking and roughness have been found out to be critical out of eight deterioration models in HDM-4 for the analysis period of 15 years. The condition of the pavement has become equivalent to a new one after maintenance.