Browsing by Author "Shekharan, Raja A."

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    Development of a Web Based Pavement Management Reporting System to Enhance the Virginia Department of Transportation Pavement Performance Monitoring Program
    Gerber, Aaron; Kanaan, Ahmad; Perrone, Eric; Chowdhury, Tanveer; Shekharan, Raja A. (2015-06-04)
    The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is the third largest state-maintained highway system in the nation. With such a significant taxpayer investment in road infrastructure, VDOT has embarked on a comprehensive pavement management process that includes the use of state of the art optimization analysis software to determine appropriate funding allocation of the pavement network. Since VDOT uses the results of the optimization analysis in determining their paving targets and for determining their funding allocations for the Districts, and because the final project selection is usually done at the District level, it is necessary to track how the scheduled Maintenance & Rehabilitation (M&R) projects being performed in the field align to the targets produced by the optimization analysis and it is also important to track the difference between the targeted, planned and actual performance of the network. This is not a simple process; this also requires an extensive coordination between the Central Office Pavement Management and the Districts. In this paper, the development of the VDOT Pavement Performance Monitoring Program is described. This Performance Monitoring Program consists of a set of programmed reports that link the VDOT PMS system and database with VDOT contracting system which gives the CO decision makers the ability to efficiently determine whether the funding allocations and performance targets are being met with the Districts project selection. This integration of the network level PMS analysis results with the Districts project selection allows VDOT to close the loop between project and network level pavement management.
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    Ten Years of Pavement Distress Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) in Virginia
    Frith, Douglas J.; Shekharan, Raja A.; Morian, Dennis A.; Chowdhury, Tanveer (2015-06-04)
    High quality data is essential in a pavement management process for achieving the objective of accurately reporting the existing network conditions, recommending maintenance and rehabilitation activities, developing performance models, and predicting the future network condition. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has required an independent verification and validation (IV&V) of the automated distress data collection process since the early 2000s. The IV&V process includes both quality control and quality assurance activities. The process of IV&V has been effective in identifying systematic errors, correcting those, and in taking steps to prevent further recurrence of such errors. At the same time, it insures that random errors are kept to a minimum. At this time the process has been applied to 10 data collection cycles using pavement monitoring information collected by a single vendor using automated data collection equipment and a semi-automated rating process. Results of this process are presented in this paper. Two pavement distress indices used by VDOT, the Load Distress Rating and the Non-Load Distress Rating have been closely controlled for each data collection cycle. As shown in the paper, there is an indication of data quality enhancement over time as well as a stabilization of the variability in the data from one year to the next. The paper also includes a summary of several significant issues that should be considered in any data quality effort.
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    Use of VDOT's Pavement Management System to Proactively Plan and Monitor Pavement Maintenance and Rehabilitation Activities to Meet the Agency's Performance Target
    Hosten, Akyiaa; Chowdhury, Tanveer; Shekharan, Raja A.; Ayotte, Matthew; Coggins, Eddie (2015-06-04)
    The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has an established Pavement Management Program that includes data collection, needs assessment, performance targets, and performance-based budgeting. As a part of data collection and needs assessment, an annual survey of pavement condition is used to estimate the current and project the future pavement maintenance and rehabilitation needs. Pavement condition targets are established, and are used to monitor and assess the effectiveness of maintenance and rehabilitation activities, as well as prioritize the use of limited funds. A performance based budgeting process establishes budget allocations based on scenarios showing the expected system performance that can be achieved at different levels of investment. To achieve these goals of the Program, VDOT has relied on the Pavement Management System (PMS) to store, report and analyze the annual pavement condition data, estimate pavement maintenance and rehabilitation needs through multi-constraint optimization and predict future performance. To meet the established performance targets, various treatment types are recommended by the PMS for the entire pavement network. The current approach has focused on using the PMS to provide information for needs assessment, budgeting, and program development. However, there is a need to provide traceability between the treatments selected by the PMS through optimization, which provides the basis for budgeting and the work actually planned and performed in the field. A process is established that helps track the planned projects and assess the impacts of changes in budget throughout the year allowing pavement professionals to take proactive steps to make the most effective decisions.