Pavement Deterioration Rate and Maintenance Cost for Low-Volume Roads

Allocated budgets for maintenance of road networks are normally limited. Therefore, not all roads receive the required attention they deserve in a timely manner. These roads are left to deteriorate until the next maintenance round. The cost associated with delayed maintenance is significantly excessive. A Pavement Maintenance Management System (PMMS) can be a useful tool for evaluation, prioritization of Maintenance and Rehabilitation (M&R) projects, and determination of funding requirements and allocations. The pavement condition is normally indexed using a parameter called Pavement Condition Index (PCI) which represents an overall assessment of surface defects by type, severity and extent. Periodic collections of PCI over time for different sections within the roadway network provide an approach to monitor changes in pavement serviceability over time and can produce useful data to predict and evaluate required maintenance solutions and their associated cost. The researchers intend to use available data collected over the span of a year and a half on sections within the roadway network at the campus of Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan (ZUJ) to study the relation between the maintenance cost and the pavement deterioration rate. This study may incorporate variables such as pavement age, traffic volumes, maintenance history and pavement condition assessment results. The available records of PCI will be analyzed and the findings will be clearly presented. The practical inclusion of the findings within the current PMMS used at the university will also be detailed.