Threshold-based resurfacing policies in pavement management to minimize costs and greenhouse gas emissions

There is an increasing need for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from pavement maintenance activities, which account for millions of tons of GHG emissions annually. By optimizing pavement resurfacing activities, there is potential for reducing the carbon footprint associated with pavements and users of pavements. We propose a framework for estimating the relationship between GHG emissions from pavement resurfacing activities and pavement cracking-threshold policies. Cracking threshold is defined herein as the maximum percent cracking level a pavement is allowed to reach before an asphalt overlay is applied. In this framework, a probabilistic model capable of predicting both crack initiation and progression over time for individual pavement segments is formulated. The model is applied to a population of pavement segments and, given a cracking-threshold value, can predict the amount of GHG emissions and costs incurred due to resurfacing activities over a specified planning horizon. The model also predicts the corresponding user costs and emissions. In order to obtain the relationship between cracking threshold and GHG emissions, the cracking threshold is varied within a practical range of values. We obtain the corresponding resurfacing interval from which GHG emissions values are computed. The dataset used in the case study is obtained from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) in the United States. The results show that the optimal cracking thresholds for minimizing costs and GHG emissions are close to each other, and are both higher than those used currently by WSDOT.