Evaluation of Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Asphalt Pavement Rehabilitations Utilizing LTPP Data

Abstract

This paper analyzed the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of several asphalt pavement rehabilitations by investigating the long-term pavement performance (LTPP) database. The multiple regression method was employed to evaluate the influence of overlay thickness, pavement thickness, traffic volume, and preoverlay pavement conditions on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. The international roughness index (IRI) was selected as an indicator of pavement performance. The postrehabilitation IRI, IRI drop, roughness increase after rehabilitation, and the “benefit” were used as measures of treatment effectiveness. The results of the presented analyses indicated that thicker overlay and milling reduced the roughness after rehabilitation. Thin overlay, high traffic level, and poor prerehabilitation pavement condition increased the deterioration rate of new overlay. Using reclaimed asphalt material did not influence the treatment performance but was cost-effective in reducing the roughness of new overlay. For a certain deterioration rate, there was an optimized prerehabilitation roughness value or time for applying maintenance treatment.