A generic LCCA algorithm for pavement management decisions

This thesis describes the development of a software package designed for life-cycle cost analysis of roadway pavements. It considers two streams of costs, those of the agency and those of the user. Agency costs are a function of the type of rehabilitation, restoration, resurfacing or reconstruction (i.e., 4-R) treatment applicable to each pavement type, given its surface distress and structural condition. User costs include vehicle operating costs and non-vehicle operating costs, which are a function of pavement roughness, as well as user delay costs due to the lane closures necessary for the pavement 4-R activities. The network level analysis flags sections in order of decreasing user benefit cost ratio, where benefit is the reduction in user costs from its current roughness to the roughness of a new pavement and cost is the agency's cost for the most capital intensive 4-R treatment. Sections flagged at the network level are carried forward to the project level analysis. The project level analysis allocates the available budget among the sections that were selected at the project level to maximize user benefits over the analysis period. The key element of this software package, named Pavement Investment Decisions (PID), is that it is generic, which means that it is specially designed to be adaptable to the practices of various State Departments of Transportation (DOT). It utilizes a visual interface that allows customizing of the software to fit the pavement management database and the pavement management practices of any State. The pavement management database of the Washington State DOT was used to implement and pilot test PID.