Abstract
Pavement performance over its life cycle is influenced by initial quality provisions and the factors that affect its condition during its operation. A study was conducted to assess the interaction between these types of variables, namely, initial design and material quality on the one hand and maintenance actions on the other. An earlier study was not able to capture separately the influence of initial design and material quality on pavement condition when maintenance actions were applied because of limitations in the deterioration model employed. In the present study a recently developed pavement rutting model was used to capture the effects these two initial quality variables, in conjunction with overlay maintenance applications, had on the life-cycle performance of roadways. The results indicate that the nature of the interactions between maintenance and design and between maintenance and material quality differs. When overlays are applied, rut depths under different design levels converge to a single constant value over the long run. However, under different material quality levels, rut depths converge to different constant values. Moreover, in absolute terms the sensitivity of the cumulative deterioration to design decreases to a small value as overlay frequency increases. However, the sensitivity with respect to material quality increases in absolute terms as the overlay frequency increases. Therefore, on the one hand, design and maintenance can substitute for one another with regard to rut progression; on the other hand, high maintenance frequency is necessary for reaping the value of high material quality.
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