DEVELOPMENT OF PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR URBAN ARTERIAL NETWORK

Abstract

Roads are infrastructural assets and need timely maintenance for their upkeep, with which they can provide intended service. The urban roads particularly those in metropolitan cities carry large traffic volume and the economic loss due to poor condition of road amounts to a huge sum in spite of their small mileage. Though road development projects help in adding considerable infrastructural assets to the country, their construction and subsequent maintenance phases require huge amount of suitable pavement materials and a variety of techniques. This amount can be reduced by providing suitable maintenance work at right time and for this accurate and reliable pavement evaluation is a must. In this study an effort has been made to study the distress measurement techniques for urban arterial network. In view of universal recognition and application of HDM-4 system, it has been used for the development of maintenance management system for the' identified urban road network. This methodology includes identification and selection of the urban road network, data acquisition and database management, and adaption of HDM-4 pavement deterioration models for urban conditions. The inventory and pavement condition data in respect of all pavement sections have been collected using equipments, such as, ROMDAS, Loadman, Portable Skid Resistance Tester, and Straight Edge, etc. All the collected data have been stored in databases, created in HDM-4. An optimum maintenance and rehabilitation strategy for a pavement section' has been determined on the basis of highest NPV/Cost ratio, amongst a number of pre-defined M&R strategies. The remaining service life for all pavement sections has been determined indicating the inevitability of reconstruction in the near future, in the absence of any maintenance management policy. The III life-cycle cost analysis of the selected Urban Road network has been carried out for both M & R and Drainage Work, and an unconstrained works program has been prepared for the defined analysis period. The work strategy and intervention criteria for drainage work have been proposed along with maintenance and rehabilitation strategy. The total budget requirements for maintenance management of the whole urban network have been determined for both maintenance and rehabilitation and drainage work. An optimized and prioritized works program has also been prepared for the available budget. The prioritization of pavement sections has been done on the basis of decreasing NPV/Cost ratio. Based on present study, it is recommended to develop similar kind of PMS for other categories of roads such as Sub-Arterial Roads, Collector and Local Streets using the inputs of PMS methodology presented in this study. The scope of present study may be extended for the development of PMS methodology for the Urban Road network having rigid pavements. Keywords: PMS, HDM, Drainage, Urban Road, Distress, Maintenance. iv