Pavement preventive maintenance decision-making by analytic network process

In order to solve the pavement preventive maintenance decision-making problem which is characteristic of multiple-target, multiple-attribute with independent and feedback actions, a multi-attributes maintenance decision-making models are established, which are based on analytic network process. In ANP, the system elements of the object are classified into two parts: The first part is known as control element layer, including the decision target and criteria for the decision; and the second part is known as network layer, composed of interdependent elements controlled by the control layer. A practical example is selected to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, which is under general principles of comprehensive consideration of cost, benefit and risk possibility, followed by detailed considerations of pavement performance indexes, such as skid resistance capacity, roughness, cracking, owner's costs, users' costs, quality risk, financial risk and work period risk; and for six preventive maintenance schemes. The results show that ANP are more likely close to practical decision environment.