Assessment of Short-Term Improvement Effectiveness of Preventive Maintenance Treatments on Pavement Performance Using LTPP Data

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the short-term effectiveness of four preventive maintenance treatments (thin overlay, slurry seal, chip seal, and crack seal) on five typical pavement performances (roughness, rutting, transverse cracking, longitudinal cracking, and alligator cracking) using the data collected in the Specific Pavement Studies-3 (SPS-3) of the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) program. A regression method (scatterplot) and a statistical method (Dunnett’s T-test) were used. A new indicator (mean value) was proposed to characterize the average short-term effectiveness. The results indicate that thin overlay has a good short-term improvement effectiveness on pavement roughness, while that of the crack seal is not significant; furthermore, slurry seal and chip seal produce a lower roughness compared with the control section. In addition, thin overlay has the most significant improvement effectiveness on rutting, followed by chip seal, slurry seal, and crack seal. It can also be found that thin overlay and chip seal have increased improvement effectiveness in terms of transverse cracking, while slurry seal and crack seal show no significant improvement effectiveness. With respect to longitudinal cracking, thin overlay has the most significant improvement effectiveness, followed by slurry seal and chip seal, which also show good improvement effectiveness, whereas the short-term effectiveness of crack seal is not significant. In terms of alligator cracking, thin overlay, slurry seal, and chip seal exhibit good short-term improvement effectiveness in a few cross sections with alligator cracks.