Optimization of pavement M&R activities and work zones with user costs for multiple distress types

The objective of Maintenance and Rehabilitation (M&R) optimization approaches in pavement management is to maximize performance (benefits) or to minimize life cycle costs, subject to annual budget constraints. If only agency costs are considered, condition thresholds are necessary, as otherwise the “do-nothing” strategy will be optimal. Including user costs and external costs may minimize total costs for the society but will almost always lead to higher agency costs. Common Pavement Management Systems (PMSs) do not consider work-zone effects in network level analysis, disregarding network configuration and dependencies between neighboring sections. This paper presents a methodology for computation of additional indirect costs for road users resulting from work zone activities, being subject of optimization. The work-zone user costs are used to group short survey sections with M&R treatments into larger work zones, providing benefits also for the agencies through economies-of-scale cost savings.