Barriers to Implementing Data-Driven Pavement Treatment Performance Evaluation Process

Abstract

State highway agencies have been collecting a massive amount of pavement condition data by using automated collection technologies. This rich historical data set has great potential to support data-driven pavement management decisions such as the selection and timing of pavement maintenance options. However, most agencies face various technical and data integration issues that result in serious underutilization of the collected data. Unless those barriers are clearly identified, communicated and resolved, it will significantly reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of the financial investments made to collect the pavement condition data and meet the Federal Highway Administration’s direction of performance-based project delivery and asset management through the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) and Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Acts. This study identifies technical challenges and data integration barriers that prevent the effective use of historical data when an agency tries to implement a data-driven process to evaluate the performance of pavement treatments. The study uses the historical data collected from one state department of transportation as a representative highway agency. A set of recommendations is presented to help state highway agencies to fully take advantage of the pavement condition data collection efforts for implementing pavement asset management.