Development and Implementation of Network-Level Selection of Pavement Maintenance and Rehabilitation Strategy: Virginia Practice

Tools for network-level pavement maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) decisions for Virginia highways have evolved over time from the use of composite condition index values to the use of more comprehensive distress-based decision matrices. This paper presents the current network-level pavement M&R planning practices in the Virginia Department of Transportation and explores the enhancement of existing distress-based M&R decision matrices to incorporate additional decision factors of traffic, structural capacity, and pavement surface age, which are as important as surface distresses. The authors found that using supplementary decision trees incorporating these decision factors allows more consistency and flexibility than simply enlarging existing distress-based decision matrices, which are already complex. Implementation of the enhanced M&R planning framework leads to a more accurate estimate of pavement preservation needs, a closer match between network-level assumptions used in pavement management and actual practice, and hence a better control of statewide network condition.