Current international practices on pavement condition assessment

Abstract

Due to aging, exposure and maintenance backlog, infrastructures are deteriorating and their capacity to provide adequate service is decreasing. Accordingly, pavement management systems have been gaining ground as a systematic process, which combines engineering principles with optimal management practices, to achieve assets’ objectives. Pavement management systems require technical parameters and performance indicators to enable informed decision making and support rational investment policies. These parameters and indicators help in the assessment, report and improvement of the quality of the service provided by the infrastructure, playing an important role in the maintenance of assets. This paper reports on technical parameters and performance indicators used in current worldwide practices for pavement condition assessment. These parameters and indicators can differ from country to country, as each country as its specific context. The analysis and comparison of these different experiences is a fruitful learning approach, which fosters a critical thinking process and leads to the continuous improvement of practices. A comprehensive literature survey was conducted to review the current practices of a set of different countries, from different continents. The technical parameters and performance indicators used for asset management purposes were identified, as well as the main aspects of the each practice. The results of this study show that international practice on condition assessment is based on similar technical parameters and performance indicators. Furthermore, it also suggests that modern road management is performance based and trends towards a more business-like approach.