U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
The following is a list of questions about pavement preservation that the U.S. scanning study team would like to discuss with you. These questions are intended to clarify and expand the topics of interest described in the team's overview paper. The questions are arranged by topic and grouped by major elements within each of four areas.
Recognizing that the terms "pavement preservation" and "preventive maintenance" have different meanings to different agencies, the U.S. panel provides the following definitions for a common understanding:
Pavement preservation - A program of activities aimed at preserving our investment in the nation's highway system, enhancing pavement performance, extending pavement life, and meeting our customers' needs. This includes corrective and preventive maintenance, as well as minor and major rehabilitation.
Preventive maintenance - The planned strategy of cost-effective treatments to an existing roadway system and its appurtenances that preserves the system, retards future deterioration, and maintains or improves the functional condition of the system without increasing structural capacity.
The team is interested in visiting sites where some of the treatments discussed are being applied or have been applied and are open to traffic. If possible, the team would like to devote 50 percent or more of its time with you to site visits. Examples of successful and not-so-successful applications are of interest to the panel to allow for a broader understanding of these treatments.
1-1. What techniques do you use to obtain top management support for your program? What is the overall management approach to various pavement preservation activities?
1-2. How have pavement preservation concepts been marketed and sold inside and outside of your agency? Do users of the system perceive there is a benefit? What is the acceptance of the program with staff and employees?
1-3. What administrative rules or laws - such as weight restrictions, seasonal or otherwise - are used in controlling use of a roadway and thus preserving the pavement?
1-4. Do you have a pavement preservation plan for your system? Is it a multi-year (five-year) plan? How is pavement preservation performance quantified (i.e., improved serviceability, increased structural value, etc.)?
1-5. Do you have an effective pavement management system and is it integrated with maintenance needs?
1-6. How do you decide when, where, and what type of pavement treatments need to be used (traffic volumes, percentage of trucks, cost, environmental concerns, political pressure)?
1-7. For pavement preservation on low-volume roads (less than 1,000 average daily trips), please indicate the types of treatments used, their performance, and specifications.
1-8. Do you have an asset management system? What role does your pavement
preservation program play in this system?
1-9. Do you have long-term pavement preservation contracts?
1-10. How do treatment cycles and overlay cycles interplay?
2-1. What are the relative costs associated with various treatments? Is this supported with a database?
2-2. Do you perform a cost-benefit analysis to determine treatment use?
2-3. How do you manage your pavement preservation program (i.e., is it centralized or decentralized?)
2-4. What percentage of your transportation budget is dedicated to pavement preservation? Are these funds consistent from year to year?
2-5. What percentage of your system is enhanced with pavement preservation techniques yearly and at what cost?
3-1. What types of treatments are commonly used?
3-2. How is the optimum timing of preservation treatments determined (i.e., function of distress, function of time, etc.)?
3-3. Do you have a guide or policy on what treatments to apply under what conditions?
3-4. What are the selection criteria for different types of surface treatments? (e.g., When is micro-surfacing used versus slurry and why? When is slurry
used versus chip seal and why?)
3-5. What types of treatments are commonly used?
3-6. How is the optimum timing of preservation treatments determined (i.e., function of distress, function of time, etc.)?
3-7. Do you have a guide or policy on what treatments to apply under what conditions?
3-8. What are the selection criteria for different types of treatments?
3-9. Do your methods or techniques include non-pavement enhancements such as base or drainage? What techniques are used to drain roadbeds?
3-10. What type of pavement analysis procedures (distress surveys, etc.) do you use?
3-11. Traffic: How do you alleviate long traffic delays and interruptions during construction?
a. Does your agency use special additives and materials to accelerate curing (quick set) and thus allow earlier opening of the treatment to traffic?
b. What is your history of use with nighttime application of surface treatments?
3-12. Are your pavement preservation contracts performance based? If so, what criteria are used?
3-13. How do you measure pavement performance and how often?
3-14. Which treatments have given you the best performance? Which ones give the best cost/benefit?
3-15. How are surface treatments evaluated? Skid related? Preservation of structure? Reemergence of surface distress? Timing on a cycle? What decisions are based on these results?
3-16. How are treatment lives determined?
3-17. Do you have different levels of treatments based on different qualities of materials (i.e., 100 percent crushed, high-quality aggregates and polymer-modified bitumens versus lower-quality materials, such as uncrushed salacious aggregates and commodity bitumens)?
3-18. What treatments are the easiest to construct? What treatments are the most difficult to construct?
3-19. What types of failures have you experienced? What was done to repair this work?
3-20. What treatments have you abandoned and why?
3-21. Which treatments are most sensitive to weather conditions when constructed?
3-22. Do you have contractors that specialize in pavement preservation techniques or do general contractors do the work?
4-1. Do you warranty pavement preservation treatments? If so, which treatments? For how long and by what performance criteria?
4-2. How involved is your research program in pavement preservation?
4-3. Are you experimenting with any new treatments, innovations with equipment, or processes used to construct pavement preservation projects that have not been adopted as a standard practice?
4-4. Have improved specifications been recently developed for pavement preservation treatments?
4-5. How is innovation encouraged in the public and private sectors? How
are these innovations integrated into your pavement preservation program?
Is
this partnership formalized?
4-6. Are you using automated repair systems for rapid pavement repair? Are such systems expensive to own and maintain?
4-7. How do you assure that designers, project inspectors, and quality control technicians have the proper knowledge and experience to work on pavement preservation projects?
4-8. Who does the testing (i.e., contractor, agency, or third party)?
4-9. How do you assure contractor compliance with specification/performance requirements?
| << Previous | Contents |
