According to recent figures reported by the Federal Highway Administration, the condition of highway pavements on the National Highway System in the United States is such that the cost to maintain the system at existing condition levels is nearly $50 billion annually (1). However, the United States currently spends only about $25 billion per year, and the estimated cost to bring the entire system up from its current level to a “good” level is $200 billion. Judging from this, it is clear that the system cannot continue to operate with traditional approaches to pavement management at the maintenance level and that the pavement preservation strategies employed at the various levels of DOTs (i.e., state, county, and city) need to be restructured.
Pavement management systems (PMS) generally include a subsystem for pavement maintenance which may contain models to determine the most cost effective treatment (2, 3). These are generally based on pavement type, condition, and other important factors. It is critical, however, that the proper maintenance treatment be placed at the right time for the pavement to function as designed and for the maintenance program to be cost effective. A limitation of many PMS systems is their inability to comprehensively analyze individual projects and determine the proper timing and cost of treatment.