Analyzing Longitudinal Data to Demonstrate the Costs and Benefits of Pavement Management

Roads and highways generally represent the single largest asset value of public infrastructure. Preservation of this asset value through timely and cost-effective maintenance and rehabilitation presents an enormous financial, management, and technical challenge to public agencies. Until recently, agencies have relied on designated or “silo” systems for pavement, bridge, and other management systems; which shared common elements of data collection, analysis, and reporting. Successful implementation of asset management requires a methodology for trade-off analysis between competing silos at the strategic level. Ultimately, many agencies may need to significantly change their business decision-making process, potentially resulting in the costs of implementation outweighing the benefits. This article describes frameworks for using longitudinal data to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of management system implementation. It also demonstrates how the same data can be used to improve technical models, thereby producing immediate benefits to the agency through enhanced decision making and, ultimately, reduced costs.