Pavement Management Accounting System

Abstract

In this paper, a pavement management accounting system (PMAS) is presented as a method for controlling the life cycle costs of road pavement. The aim of the PMAS is to provide decision makers with planning information regarding repair strategies and accounting information on asset values, with the aim of achieving efficient asset management of road pavement. This paper represents implementation of an integrated pavement system with an accounting system. This integration makes it possible to provide justification for a specific budget request on the basis of standard cost accounting information. Moreover, it links pavement deterioration explicitly to asset depreciation, which makes it possible to combine engineering and accounting information within the same analysis. By comparing the pros and cons of the three alternative methods of accounting, the authors conclude that deferred maintenance accounting is most likely to result in the efficient asset management of road pavement. The PMAS for asset management is constructed and implemented by applying the maintenance accounting scheme. The validity of the PMAS presented in this paper is investigated through case studies conducted for Mie Prefecture.