Use of VDOT's Pavement Management System to Proactively Plan and Monitor Pavement Maintenance and Rehabilitation Activities to Meet the Agency's Performance Target

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.