Task Force on Roadway Pavement Preservation
Introduction
Our Nation's roadway infrastructure represents more than $1 trillion in public agency investment. Significant portions of this network are now deteriorating because of increasing age, usage, deferred maintenance and environmental impacts on the system. At the same time, the public continues to demand more accountability and expects improved levels of comfort, safety and convenience. Government agencies at all levels are entrusted with the responsibility and stewardship to cost-effectively maintain and manage the national investment in the surfaced and unsurfaced roadway infrastructure.
Roadway agencies are partnering with industry and academia to find solutions to these infrastructure challenges. This partnering trend is likely to continue as a result of government organizational re-invention and the accompanying downsizing of significant numbers of staff. Hence, roadway agencies are more likely to concentrate on various management functions, such as program delivery, and less on technical functions that include a time consuming, complex array of issues with low public visibility.
To properly manage these assets, understanding the costs and benefits of pavement preservation for surfaced and unsurfaced roadways is now particularly important because of the current condition of the Nation's roadway network. Roadway pavement preservation is a customer-focused program of activities undertaken to cost-effectively maintain serviceable roadways. The implementation of an effective pavement preservation program requires expertise in management, engineering and economics, and encompasses routine/corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance and minor rehabilitation activities. The preservation concept is becoming so widely accepted that preservation initiatives are being used in the business arena in asset management programs. For example, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board has recently undertaken a policy that gives greater emphasis to infrastructure preservation.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) have long endorsed the need for expanded infrastructure preservation initiatives on good pavements. In view of its importance, the FHWA now has an office in its headquarters dedicated to infrastructure asset management. The Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) through its Maintenance Cost-Effectiveness Experiments clearly demonstrated the viability of using functional surface treatments on various classes of roads at differing pavement ages. As an on-going accelerated program under Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) with several research objectives still to be completed, the use of preservation activities as a cost-effective activity for managing pavements has been established.
Scope
Meeting the future needs for surfaced and unsurfaced roadways require agencies to deal effectively with issues of finance, planning/scheduling, design, construction and preservation. Developing and addressing the technical, operational and economic issues are vital to preserving infrastructure assets. It's now time to integrate engineering research, agency operations and economics principles to best achieve optimal results. The Task Force on Roadway Pavement Preservation will pull together the technical, operational and financial aspects of infrastructure preservation and the best practices being experienced at this time.
Deliverables
It is proposed that the Task Force have a three-year life with four deliverables.
• The first deliverable will be a compendium of papers presented at a national workshop on pavement preservation for surfaced and unsurfaced roadways. The published proceedings will be distributed in hard copy to the participants at the workshop, and will be posted on the Internet following the workshop to facilitate wider distribution of the best pavement preservation practices to the transportation community. Using a “call for abstracts” and individual contacts with potential authors, the Task Force will encourage and promote the development of papers from the transportation community on all aspects of successfully implemented pavement preservation techniques and programs. It is envisioned that each paper will contain a detailed description of the successful techniques and programs, and, if possible, an evaluation of their effectiveness.
• Using break-out sessions, the workshop participants will be encouraged to discuss the information presented, and contribute additional information on their pavement preservation activities and programs. Members of the Task Force will act as discussion leaders and recorders for these sessions. The results of these discussions will be synthesized by the Task Force following the workshop and published as the second deliverable.
• The first two deliverables will be used by the Task Force to develop the third deliverable, a Roadway Pavement Preservation Handbook (RPPH) - similar to a car “owner's manual.” The RPPH will be written in a technical format that will prove valuable to state and local agency managers, engineers, practitioners and technicians. As envisioned, the RPPH will present all aspects of pavement preservation within the context of asset management principles with references to successful techniques and programs. Acting as a compass, RPPH will be developed in such a way as to serve as the principal reference guide for implementation of optimal pavement preservation applications.
• The fourth deliverable will be a pamphlet on “Stakeholders Roles in an Effective Roadway Pavement Preservation Program” that focuses on the needs of legislators, public, contractors, CEO's and managers, and explains in non-technical terms the issues and fundamental concerns that need to be considered for a successful program with emphasis on benefits for each of the stakeholders.
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