Abstract
The Michigan Department of Transportation's (DOT) pavement preservation program dates back to 1992. In Michigan, pavement preservation is implemented primarily through the Michigan DOT's capital preventive maintenance (CPM) program, in which preventive maintenance treatments are used to protect existing pavement surfaces, to slow deterioration, and to correct surface deficiencies. An overall objective of the CPM program is to postpone major rehabilitation and reconstruction activities by extending the service life of pavements. Results of a study performed to calculate the benefits and costs of various preventive maintenance treatments used in the Michigan DOT's CPM program are presented. With benefit defined as the percentage increase in performance over a do-nothing or untreated pavement performance curve where data were available, benefits were calculated for preventive maintenance treatments. Benefit–cost ratios were calculated by unit cost, and permitted the comparison of the cost-effectiveness of similar treatments. The overall performance of the Michigan DOT's CPM program was also examined by comparing the life-cycle costs of a rehabilitation strategy to a preservation strategy with the use of a simplified approach. The outcome showed that the preservation strategy resulted in agency cost savings of approximately 25% per lane mile over a rehabilitation-only strategy. Findings from this study can be used to help the Michigan DOT improve its CPM project selection, treatment selection, and performance monitoring and modeling practices.
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